Agricultural foundations on which the Ozarks are built
FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. – Rolling hills and mountain overlooks. White oaks and hickories standing tall throughout the forests, morning sunlight peeking through the leaves. Rivers running freely, lakes still and tranquil. Wooden barns surrounded by rows of freshly baled hay.
Cookie-cutter houses replace antiquated barns. Harsh black asphalt slices through the hills. Booming commercial centers interrupt the peace and serenity of the landscape.
Such is the fleeting beauty of the Ozarks.
Jared Phillips, a writer, farmer, historian and professor at the University of Arkansas, has dedicated his career to studying the evolution of both the region’s agriculture and tradition. Through both examining Ozarks history and firsthand experience, Phillips has seen Ozarks culture persist in the face of environmental challenges, war, economic crises, and depopulation. Now, urbanization presents a new challenge. The Ozarks will either have the capacity to adapt to urban expansion, or its rich natural beauty and deep cultural heritage will be rendered obsolete.
As an expert in Ozarks history, Phillips said the formation of Ozarks culture began with the poverty of the original Ozarks settlers. While native tribes and early nomads were fortunate enough to continue searching for more forgiving terrain, most Ozarks settlers were unable to afford establishing a life anywhere but the rough and rugged Ozark landscape.
“We hung on to a bunch of different ways of being that other parts of the country forgot,” Phillips said. “Poverty means that poor people hang on to folk customs that other people disregard.”
Phillips explained that folk knowledge became both a source of income as well as a strategy for remaining food secure. Customs such as predicting weather using persimmons, planting and harvesting based on moon cycles, timing fishing seasons, and wild harvest gathering became closely intertwined with the previously established subsistence agriculture systems.
“We were poor, we were broke, we just made do,” he said. “That stuff we’ve always kept, just because we’ve had to.”
Phillips has certainly done his part in preserving Ozarks folklore. Having lived in the Ozarks his entire life, Phillips still incorporates old traditions in his family’s sheep operation. Like the first Ozarks settlers, he too had to learn to navigate farming along ridges that line the terrain of his land.
“There’s some ways that things were done in the fifties and sixties that were probably the right way for our place,” Phillips shared. “We’re kind of outliers. We farm with horses.”
He explained that using horses has enabled him to farm his own land more effectively. While the process is slower than using a tractor, it is ultimately less expensive. Farming with horses isn’t common, but for Phillips, it’s necessary.
“Being willing to hang on to the past because it provides you with options… that’s more of the lesson we tend to take,” he said. “It helps us out and helps keep us anchored. For us there’s not a better way to do it.”
Phillips and his family still uphold many Ozarks farming traditions, but this isn’t typical for most people across the Ozarks. Once urbanization entered the Ozarks scene, the farming culture completely changed. According to Phillips, the focus on agriculture shifted towards an emphasis on industry and modern development, leading to the diminishing role of the farmer.
“There’s not a value placed on what farmers do for a community beyond just raising food,” Phillips said. “Farmers control the landscape of America. The wellbeing of the nation’s landscape largely rests on the success or failure of America’s agricultural communities.”
Despite its importance for the entire region, agriculture in the Ozarks continues to be masked by urban progress. As a result, Phillips said generational farming has been put on hold. Parents encourage children to find success off the farm, while urbanization brings in people who are entirely unfamiliar with both Ozarks tradition and the agriculture in which it is so deeply rooted.
“Hardly anybody’s from a rural space.” Phillips said. “We’re losing that [folk knowledge] now, not because the population of people that knows that necessarily has gone away, but there’s so many new people coming in, and they may have their own traditions and folk knowledge.”
With so many people constantly moving in and out of the Ozarks, culture is bound to change. Phillips said he believes that people who seek to build a life in the Ozarks and contribute to the community may prove to be crucial to enhancing current customs.
He went on to explain that the key to preserving his culture lies in being involved in the narrative. Phillips said he views his professor role as a platform for defending Ozarkers.
“I have letters behind my name, and I’m a local boy,” he explained. “I’m able to speak into the system in a way that not everybody could. The combination of keeping one foot in each camp has let me do that.”
Not only is Phillips able to relate to farmers, academics, and policy makers alike, but he also has spent his professional career ensuring that the next generation understands the importance of the agricultural foundations on which the Ozarks are built. Emaline Pendleton, an Honors student at the University of Arkansas studying both biological and agricultural engineering and Ozarks studies, said that her eyes have been opened to entirely new ways of viewing the Ozarks.
“Throughout Dr. Phillips’ classes, he always made it abundantly clear that agriculture was both a way that Ozarkers have continued to stay connected to the land and the rest of the country,” Pendleton reflected.
Whether it’s farming the way grandpa did or sharing old Ozark folklore knowledge, everyone has a part to play in keeping the culture of the Ozarks alive.
Just as the Ozark region has persisted and adapted throughout periods of war, economic downfall, environmental degradation, and depopulation, now too, the Ozarks will persist and even thrive in the face of rapid urbanization. Even as the culture continues to develop, its roots in agriculture still run deep.
