Lyrics Woody Guthrie – Roll On

Well, the world has seven wonders that the trav’lers always tell
Some gardens and some towers, I guess you know them well
But now the greatest wonder is in Uncle Sam’s fair lang
It’s the big Columbia River and the big Grand Coulee Dam

She heads up the Canadian Rockies where the rippling waters glide
Comes a-roaring down the canyon to meet the salty tide
Of the wide Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the West
And the big Grand Coulee country in the land I love the best

In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and wind ward spray
Men have fought the pounding waters and met a watery grave
Well, she tore their boats to splinters but she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross that wild and wasted stream

Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of ‘thrity-three
For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me
He said, «Roll along, Columbia, you can ramble to the sea
But river, while you’re rambling, you can do some work for me»

Now in Washington and Oregon you can hear the factories hum
Making chrome and making manganese and light aluminum
And there roars the flying fortress now to fight for Uncle Sam
Spawned upon the King Columbia by the big Grand Coulee Dam