January 24, 1986

Arkansas Power and Light Company (AP&L) presented the song “Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me)” to the state in a ceremony on the capitol steps, in celebration of Arkansas’s sesquicentennial. AP&L had commissioned Nashville, Tennessee, songwriter and Mallet Town (Conway County) native Wayland Holyfield to write and perform the song. Holyfield termed the assignment “the toughest challenge I think I’ve ever had,” adding that he did not want it to be a travelogue or an anthem; to record it, he had assembled a group of musicians with Arkansas roots. In 1987, the song became one of Arkansas’s four official state songs.