Cover of WRECK OF THE SOUTHERN OLD 97 in 1924 - as Wreck Of The Old 97, with The Prisoner's Song on the B-side, the surprise hit that triggered the industry's interest in hillbilly music; also a David Graves George claimed to have written the original trainwreck song back when the accident occured; Whitter (our original) had sold his rights to Fred Hager's publishing company; so who wrote the Whitter's verses in Dalhart's hit? Noell or George? Robert Winslow Gordon, head of the Library of Congress's Archive of Folk Culture (before the Lomaxes), concluded Dalhart used Whitter who in turn used Noell's lyrics; chemical analysis of the ink used by George excluded a turn of the century origin