Well, actually, I said that Art Thieme said that "Yon Yonson" came from South Dakota. But then again, he must have been right, because I never knew Art to be wrong. "Yon Yonson" is the kind of song that people from outside Wisconsin would sing to give their impression of how Wisconsinites talk, but Wisconsinites don't really talk that way. Ena, hey?

So, "Yon Yonson" is a song sung by a South Dakotan trying to sound like a Wisconsinite, but failing miserably.

Look at the Traditional Ballad Index entry that I copy-pasted above, and note the literary sources of "Yon Yonson:

• Was Carl Sandburg from Wisconsin? Nope, Illinois.
• Was Sinclair Lewis from Wisconsin? Nope, Minnesota.

I rest my case.

-Joe Offer, born in Detroit but raised in Wisconsin-