Bag Balm
Skin salve made in Lyndonville, Vermont since 1899
✅ Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Bag Balm products are made
Lyndonville, Vermont
Bag Balm is made in Lyndonville, in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the same town where the Dairy Association Company first brought it to market in 1899. In the early years it was cooked in a two-by-three-foot vat heated by a lamp underneath.
A short ingredient list
The formula is built on a small number of simple, time-tested ingredients rather than a long cosmetic deck, which is a large part of why it has stayed in farmhouses, tackle boxes and glove compartments for over a century.
The green tin
The square green tin with cows and red clover — Vermont’s state flower — was commissioned to bring the salve to farmers in the 1890s and is still the package people recognize on a shelf.
Bag Balm states that after all this time it is still made in Lyndonville, Vermont. The brand is owned and operated by Vermont’s Original, LLC, and the product line has grown beyond the original salve to include lip balm, soap and other skin care. Individual ingredients in any skin care formula are sourced from suppliers rather than grown on site, so the domestic claim here is about where the product is manufactured. Check the individual listing if origin matters to you on a specific item in the line.
The story
In the fall of 1889 the Lyster brothers of Lyndonville, Vermont formed the Dairy Association Company and hired a local man, John Norris, to run it and promote a cow tonic to area farmers. Ten years later, in 1899, a pharmacist in Wells River, Vermont created a balm to soothe cracked, dry cow udders — and Bag Balm was born.
To bring it to market Norris commissioned the now-famous green tin, decorated with cows and red clover, Vermont’s state flower. Farmers bought it for their herds and then, inevitably, started using it on their own hands.
That second life is what made Bag Balm famous. It spread by word of mouth from dairy barns to households, and a national television segment filmed over three days at the Lyndonville factory turned a small Vermont company into a nationally known name.
Bag Balm is now owned and operated by Vermont’s Original, LLC, and the line has grown to include lip balm and soap. The original salve is still made in Lyndonville from the same kind of simple ingredients it started with.
Why they matter
Bag Balm is a useful reminder that longevity is its own kind of proof. A product that has stayed on shelves for well over a century, essentially unchanged, did not get there through marketing budgets — it got there because it worked and people told each other.
It is also a genuinely local manufacturer in a part of the country that has lost a great deal of manufacturing. Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is rural and thinly populated, and a company that has kept production in Lyndonville rather than moving it to a contract packer is keeping real jobs in a place that needs them.
For anyone trying to buy American, Bag Balm is about as uncomplicated as it gets: one product, one town, one hundred and twenty-five years.
Shop Bag Balm products
Browse Bag Balm salve, lip balm and skin care available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Bag Balm made?
In Lyndonville, Vermont, in the state’s Northeast Kingdom — the same town where it was first brought to market.
How old is Bag Balm?
The salve dates to 1899, when a Wells River, Vermont pharmacist created it. The Dairy Association Company that first sold it was formed in Lyndonville in 1889.
Why is it called Bag Balm?
It was originally made to soothe cracked, dry cow udders — the “bag” — and dairy farmers quickly began using it on their own chapped hands.
Who owns Bag Balm today?
The brand is owned and operated by Vermont’s Original, LLC, which continues to make it in Lyndonville, Vermont.