"the" before country name

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/12/2008 10:11 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>Btw, there's the song "Down in the Arkansas."  Outside of the song,
>does anyone refer to the state as "the Arkansas"?

When does the song date from?  (It's described as
traditional.)  There was an "Arkansas Territory" from 1819 to 1836
[Wikipedia].  Another colonial vestige?

Joel

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