My family sang it when I was a kid. My grandparents lived in Pike County Illinois, which is just acros the river from Pike County Missouri. Pike County Mo is where Betsy & Ike came from, the way I heerd it.

The state nickname for Missourians was "Pukes," supposedly derive from "Pikes."

That's nickname as in "Hoosiers" and Sooners." This is all family folklore.

They got to Salt Lake, and Hangtown, so the big mountains must have been the Rockies. I always thought the Pike County pants were his dress-up pants from home, making a little fun of him, and rhyming with "dance..

clint