Ozark Howler Culture
What we’re doing when we tell Ozark Howler stories
The one thing that defines the Ozarks is that they’re remote. The Ozarks are not in the heart of things. No one claims that the Ozark Mountains are where the new fads come from. Being in the Ozarks is about being in a place that’s set apart.
The thing is, whether you’re from the Ozarks or not, you know the feeling of wishing you could get out of the center, get away from the trends and the fads, escape the pop in popular culture. Being remote can be a liberation.
The Spirit of the Ozarks
This thing that we’re looking for has a totem animal, a spirit creature that represents the quest for isolation, for independence, for true identity. It’s a wild beast, a creature of the shadows, haunting forgotten valleys and forlorn hills. It’s called the Ozark Howler.
The Ozark Howler is an ancient beast. Some people say it’s always been in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some say it came over in the stories of the European settlers who crossed over the Mississippi River hundreds of years ago, a version of the tales of Black Shuck, the Hellhound who foretold the deaths of those who saw it, a shadow of the Grim that has become familiar to readers of the Harry Potter series.
Some people say honestly that they just don’t know exactly what the Ozark Howler is, or where it came from.
I’m interested in the Ozark Howler because of the idea that it represents — the idea that even in an age of constant surveillance where everybody has mountains of data collected about them, there are other mountains that are even more important than that. There are still mysteries in the world, things we don’t know about.
No matter what the Ozark Howler is, the fact that it is out there, roaming the hills, going in its own direction for its own purposes, speaks to the continued freedom we all have to step aside from Facebook, to turn off the TV, and to get outside of the little universes that have been designed for us. As long as the Ozark Howler lives, we all have a chance to find a deeper dimension to our time here on Earth.
There’s a lot to say about the Ozark Howler. It’s a weird, ambiguous thing, and I’ll be writing more articles about it. Still, this is where I start out. It’s why I persist in learning about the Ozark Howler, the rock to which I will always return.
