The preservation and dissemination of traditional Ozark Folklore and Folk magic, without the intrusions of Hermeticism, Neopaganism, or New Age hussyism
Questions, comments, concerns, bitches or complaints may be forwarded here:
drcorbeaux@gmail.com
Ozark Superstitions, Magic, and Folklore The Musings of a Hillybilly Goomer Doctor
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My folks are from Ash Flat, Arkansas and a lot of what you’re writing is familiar to me. Thanks for a really good website!
Glad you’ve enjoyed it Hopefully I’ll be able to be more active and post more on this blog soon
Enjoyed visiting and reading your blog. I have family connections to both the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains. Remember the old folks telling me about the Jackros. Keep up the good work. BTW, I administer the Scots-Irish DNA project, helping a lot of folk with Southern Upland roots find kith and kin and sorting out family lines for them.
Have famly from Ava, MO and wanted to know more about water witches?
Water Witches are dowsers; folks who dowse for water. Sometimes it’s called “witch wiggling” or just dowsing. Most often done with a forked stick here; though modern folks sometimes use the coat hangers. I’ve also saw it done with a silver quarter and a piece of twine.
I grew up in Ozark County. Sixth generation Ozarker on my father’s side. My family was having difficulty drilling a new well. The first one hit a cave at about 300 feet and bent the drill. The afternoon they were deciding on a new place to drill I saw a neighbor witch water with a forked branch cut from a peach tree. I was only about 8 years old. After the adults left I picked up the branch, holding each fork in a hand I started off walking slowly as I’d seen our neighbor. After about 15 feet of slow walking, totally focused on the stick in my hands it began to twitch and bend. I can still recall the hair standing up on my neck and I dropped it in horror. Oddly enough, I was directly over the pipe that carried water from our roof to the underground cistern in our yard. That was 1968 and I’ve never tried it again!
Please keep recording any of our almost gone history.
I haven’t posted in quite a while; maybe I’ll be able to revive this blog in 2017
I definitely will. Have a hard time keeping up with the blogs. Hoping some of the children take an interest so I can pass these things on.