I’m usually very reluctant to tell people, especially dedicated church going folks, that I travel in search of ghosts. That was the case when our new neighbors moved in. They are very nice, but also very religious. I’ve had my share of being told what I do is evil, thank you very much.
However, they surprised me in a big way. There was no accusing me that my ways would lead me to the Devil. Instead, they enhanced my education about a haunted place I want to visit but have not yet jaunted to when they loaned me a book, The Shepherd of the Hills, Centennial Edition.
Calvin, our neighbor, had picked it up on a trip to Branson, Missouri several years ago.
That’s when they learned the Ozarks have always held a certain haunting mystique. Author Harold Bell Wright captured that essence in his book, which was published in the early 1900s. He wrote it after he’d taken a trip there and fell under its spell.
There’s a little bit of a ghost story to it, a little bit of romance, a dash of mystery, and a whole lot of spirituality. One of the things Wright tried to do was impart everything about the Ozarks to his readers. He describes, in oftentimes very poetic ways, the land’s beauty, but also uses the dialogue of its inhabitants.
I’ll admit, at first the dialogue was a bit rough to read through. But it got easier as the book wore on. I was sucked into the plot and charmed by the setting and characters.
Once upon a time this book was so huge it was made into a movie starring John Wayne.
I understand it was as popular as the book back in its day, but now, also like the book, is sort of a unknown classic.
The book also greatly influenced tourists wanting to flock to see this mystical and mysterious countryside. It had such an important impact that there’s even a book about that: Shepherd of the Hills Country: Tourism Transforms the Ozarks, 1880-1930s.
Like I mentioned, It’s not exactly a ghost story, but there are references to the dark things that dance in the hills and how one of the characters can see them and communicate with them. There’s also references to spirit lights and mist and how such things have always lived there and have been revered more than feared.
It ended up being a charming read, one that fueled my desire to jaunt to the Ozarks even more.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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