From the recording The Last Spike
Lyrics
The Last Spike
Working round the clock
Handcarts moved the drift
Every time they crossed a stream
They built another a bridge
25 000 ties and 100 000 strikes
More dead than alive
When they drove the last spike
That’s how the West was won
That’s how the
West was lost
The barons made the dollars
And the workers paid the cost
They bar
el
y heard the warning
Before the blast of dynamite
Then they kept
on
laying tracks
Till they drove the last spike
They called it a day
It was the end of a time
That engine dis
appeared
Eastward down the line
All that’s left were stories
Of what the land was like
They laid down their heavy hammers
When they drove the last spike
When the task was ended
They went their separate ways
Spoka
ne
or San Francis
co
Or back to Boston Bay
An old guitar for comfort
And tobacco in a pipe
Laid off and sent away
When they drove the last spike