The Last Spike

V) Working round the clock handcarts
moved the drift
Every time they crossed a stream they
built another bridge
25 thousand ties and a hundred thousand
strikes
more dead than alive when they drove
the last spike
V) 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 barely heard the warning Before the
TIM STAFFORD & THOMM JUTZ, WALL DOGS (2024) LYRICS.rtf
blast of dynamite
Then they kept on laying tracks Till they
drove the last spike
V) They called it a day it was the end of a
time
that engine disappeared 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
V) And when the task was ended, They
went their separate ways
Spokane or San Francisco, 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