Arkansas is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma to the west. Its name derives from the Osage language, and refers to their relatives, the Quapaw people. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.
Hillbilly is a term for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks. As people migrated out of the region during the Great Depression, the term spread northward and westward with them.
Pope County is a county in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 63,381. The county seat is Russellville. The county was formed on November 2, 1829, from a portion of Crawford County and named for John Pope, the third governor of the Arkansas Territory. Pope County was the nineteenth county formed. The county's borders changed eighteen times in the 19th century with the creation of new counties and adjustments between counties. The current boundaries were set on March 8, 1877.
Faulkner County is a county located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 123,498, making it the fifth most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat and largest city is Conway. Faulkner County was created on April 12, 1873, one of nine counties formed during Reconstruction, and is named for Sandford C. Faulkner, better known as Sandy Faulkner, a popular figure in the state at the time.
Cephas Washburn was a Christian missionary and educator who worked with the Cherokee of northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. He later worked to establish churches in Arkansas.
Edward Payson Washburn also known as Edward Payson Washbourne, was an American painter. He was the son of Christian missionary Cephas Washburn. He is best known for his painting, The Arkansas Traveller (1856). During the Antebellum era, he was one of the most notable painters in the state of Arkansas.
Sandford C. Faulkner, better known as Sandy Faulkner, was an American planter, raconteur and fiddler who personified the mid-19th century folk song "Arkansas Traveler," for which he received writing credit. It has since gone on to become the official state historic song of Arkansas.
Mount Holly Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Quapaw Quarter area of downtown Little Rock in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the burial place for numerous Arkansans of note. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and has been nicknamed "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas".
Arkansas Traveler or Arkansas Traveller may refer to:
Arkansas is a Southern state of the United States. Arkansas's musical heritage includes country music and various related styles like bluegrass and rockabilly.
Robin "Bob" Burns was an American musical comedian, who appeared on radio and in movies from 1930 to 1947.
"The Arkansas 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.
Felix Ives Batson was a prominent American lawyer and politician from Arkansas.
The history of Arkansas began millennia ago when humans first crossed into North America. Many tribes used Arkansas as their hunting lands but the main tribe was the Quapaw, who settled in the Arkansas River delta upon moving south from Illinois. Early French explorers gave the territory its name, a corruption of Akansea, which is a phonetic spelling from the Illinois language word for the Quapaw. This phonetic heritage explains why "Arkansas" is pronounced so differently than the U.S. state of "Kansas" even though they share the same spelling.
Métis fiddle is the style that the Métis of Canada and Métis in the northern United States have developed to play the violin, solo and in folk ensembles. It is marked by the percussive use of the bow and percussive accompaniment. The Métis people are a poly-ethnic post-contact Indigenous peoples. Fiddles were "introduced in this area by Scottish and French-Canadian fur traders in the early 1800s", where the Metis community adopted the instrument into their culture.
The culture of Arkansas is a subculture of the Southern United States that has come from blending heavy amounts of various European settlers' cultures with the cultures of African slaves and Native Americans. Southern culture remains prominent in the rural Arkansas delta and south Arkansas. Arkansans share a history with the other southern states that includes the institution of slavery, the American Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and segregation, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement.
The Bob Burns Show was an American old-time radio comedy program that starred comedian Bob Burns. The program derived from a character Burns performed for five years on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall entitled "The Arkansas Traveler".
The Arkansas Traveler is an honorary title bestowed on notable individuals who, through their actions, serve as goodwill ambassadors for the US state of Arkansas. A certificate is signed by the governor, secretary of state and the recipient's sponsor, and given to the honoree during a ceremony attended by the signers.
Archibald Hamilton Rutherford was a public official, state legislator, and Treasurer of Arkansas.
May Anderson Kennedy McCord was an American newspaper columnist and radio personality based in Missouri, known as "Queen of the Hillbillies" and "First Lady of the Ozarks". Her writings and programs often focused on local legends, recipes, songs, and ghost stories. In 2022, the University of Arkansas Press published a compilation of her writings.
