011 - Balsam Traditions, part 2

Transcript

Balsam Traditions, part 2

Introductory Segment 

Welcome to part two of Balsam Traditions. In episode 10 we introduced our superstar conifer the Balsam fir. After listening to that episode you're probably thinking that the Balsam tree is the most useful tree in the forest! Well, we aren’t done. 

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro

CONTENT

The sweet smell of the forest makes people feel better. Whether or not it is really a cure for illness, the scent has attracted people to come to the Adirondacks in order to heal. Adirondack Murray (who we have mentioned in other episodes) even had a tale in his book Adventures in the Wilderness about it. He told of a man that came to the mountains after doctors had given up on him. But after five months of sleeping on balsam beds and camping he was cured! I don’t know if just smelling balsam is a cure but it has been used to make medicines that you could buy in a store not the kind you get from a doctor.

Here are a few that were made from balsam pitch. Pitch is another word for resin. It's a clear, sticky goo that dot the bark of the balsam tree. The first medicine was call Save-the-Baby. That’s kind of an alarming name! But, it was a salve a lot like Vicks VapoRub. Maybe you have used that when you have a cold. Vicks smells like a tree called eucalyptus, and Save-the-Baby smells like balsam. 

There was another one kind of like Save-the-Baby. This one was called Murray’s Balsam Jelly. It was made right here in Blue Mt. Lake. Little packages of it were given away as souvenirs. 

This last one really thought well of itself. Kemp’s Balsam Syrup said that it “Cures coughs, colds, bronchitis, catarrh, asthma, influenza and all throat and lung diseases. Affords immediate relief in the severest cases of whooping cough, croup and all throat disorders.” Wow! I suspect that may not have all been true. What do you think?

In addition to those medicines that were made for sale, people also used balsam pitch in home remedies. Medicine that they made just for their own use. We have a good story about one of those home remedies.

TRANSITION - sounds

The following is a story from Harvey Carr’s Adirondack Tall Tales. It’s being told by Christine Campeau, School Programs Manager here at the Adirondack Experience.  

TRANSITION - another voice 

Well, I have to tell you a little bit about my dog. I used to have a dog years ago here, oh, about 30 years ago when I was just a teenager and he was quite a dog. Times were kind of rough right then and we didn’t have the money to buy anything like cloverine salve or rosebud salve. So, I decided to make my own. What I did, I took the inner bark of a hemlock tree and I steeped it just like you would tea. Then I took the balsam pits there, those little bubbles of resin, you know, on the outside of a balsam tree and I mixed them up with the hemlock juice. I called it Hembal Salve.

It worked good. One day I was out there in the woods and I cut my foot with an axe. I didn’t cut it too bad, I only hit it once. I ran and got some salve and I put it on. It healed up real quickly. Well, I had a cracked axe handle, pretty near broke apart. So I rubbed some of the salve on it and it made that handle as good as new.

It worked pretty good. Anything from a broken window to a broken leg, it would cure. I was out one day and I was splitting wood. Ol’ Spot, my dog, was out there with me. He wandered around the place, wagging his tail. I tried to keep him out of the way but he was pretty friendly. I was just cutting the wood and I just brought the axe down and just before I hit the block Ol’ Spot wagged his tail right under that axe and I chopped his tail clean off.

Well now, I felt bad.Ol’ Spot was whining and crying and yipping quite a bit. Then I thought of that Hembal Salve. So, I ran in and brought it out and rubbed it on the little stub of Spot’s tail. He quit whining and yipping and crying and even began to wag that little stub of a tail. “Well,” I said, “ I guess that will be alright.” Then, Poof! Spot grew a new tail. 

Next spring I was out doing a little spring cleaning, raking up the chips and sawdust and bark and whatever. Lo and behold, there was Spot's tail. Well, I picked it up. I didn’t quite know what to do with it. I didn’t know whether to have it bronzed or pickled or what. Then I thought of the Hembal Salve. I went in and got it and I rubbed it on that old tail. Poof! It grew a new dog. You know, you couldn’t tell those two dogs apart.

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast conclusion