The Arkansas Traveler (song)

1863 folk song by Mose Case

"The Arkansas Traveler" (also known as "The Arkansaw Traveler") is an American folk song first published by Mose Case, a humorist and guitarist from New York, in 1863. The song was based on the composition "The Arkansas Traveller" by Sandford C. Faulkner and is the Arkansas official historic song.

The origin of the "Arkansas Traveler" relates to the time Sandford C. Faulkner, a wealthy planter of Chicot County, Arkansas, got lost among the wild, rugged hills of the old Bayou Mason township in that county. In his travels, he happens upon the dilapidated cabin of a squatter, when the now famous colloquy between the traveler and the squatter took place regarding the leaky condition of the cabin, which could not be repaired when it rained and which did not need repairing when the weather was good. So between the conditions of good weather and bad weather the miserable hovel continued open to rain and sun alike. The squatter, who was non committal to all inquiries of the traveler as to the locality, the road, or the way out of the hills, and who was very peremptory in his refusal of accommodation for the traveler and his horse, was engaged in a bungling attempt to play upon an old cracked and battered fiddle the first bar or two of an old familiar air much in vogue with the settlers of some of the older Southern States. Faulkner, who was somewhat of a fiddler himself, took the squeaky instrument and played the whole of the tune and played himself into the heart and home of the surly old squatter, who joyously accorded him the only dry spot in the cabin, feed for his horse, and a pull at the old black whisky jug.

The song was first published by Mose Case, a humorist and guitarist from New York, in 1863 under the name "The Arkansas Traveler." A recitation of the story by Len Spencer, with accompaniment by an unknown fiddler, was first recorded by the Zonophone label in early 1902. In December 1908, Spencer recorded "The Arkansaw Traveler" for Victor Records. In April 1916, it was recorded by Kentucky fiddler Don Richardson for Columbia. The 1922 version by native Arkansan “Eck” Robertson was among the first fifty recordings named to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Arkansas' other state songs are "Arkansas" (state anthem), "Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)," and "Oh, Arkansas."

The song has many versions, recorded by many people, and it has also inspired the creation of the children's song, "baby bumblebee" which shares the same tune.