"Arkansas", written by Eva Ware Barnett in 1916, is one of the official state songs of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. It was first adopted as the state song in the early 20th century but was removed in 1949 due to a

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

dispute. After the state settled the dispute by buying all claims to its copyright, it was restored as state song in 1963. In 1987, the General Assembly elevated the song to "state anthem" in order to designate " Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)" and " Oh, Arkansas", both written for the state's 150th birthday in 1986, as state songs; it also designated " The Arkansas Traveler", the state song from 1949 to 1963, as "state historical song". Another 1987 law requires the Secretary of State to respond to all requests for copies of the "state song" with this song. However, this was done only to preserve the historical status of this song; all four songs are either copyrighted by the state itself or in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. Today, the Secretary of State posts the lyrics to all four songs on its website.

External links

Lyrics & download of "Arkansas", from the Arkansas Secretary of State's websiteArkansas Code (Section 1-4-116, State songs and anthem)
United States state songs Symbols of Arkansas Music of Arkansas 1916 songs Songs about Arkansas {{anthem-stub