---

As the century turns

Everything goes cold

I reach for a faded tale

Of a nation once told

The new industrial god

machine

The barons of toil,

and their ever expanding reach

The driller a titan

The lender a lord

Prosperity in the open grave is what they preach

My twilight burns lonesome

The dream has been felled

I yearn for some respite

A shred of valor I once held

A hail to progress

And eternal returns

From the frontier towns

Billows of black

A palace of gold

He who saddled the iron horse

Pulls god's country in tow

Cursed!

Given unto the thousand tombs

Beguiled!

A mirage in black smoke

Abandoned!

Golden streets tarnished with

blood

Idols of steam, gods of steel

And all else consumed

Is this not the path of heaven

I was put here to tread?

Years of toil is all here I have found

And a cross for the dead

Cursed!

Given unto the thousand tombs

Beguiled!

A mirage in black smoke

Abandoned!

Golden streets tarnished with

blood

Idols of steam, gods of steel

And all else consumed

The thousand condemned to lie in the graves below

Tombs

The veil drifts to the ground of western

A looming shadow from the hill

Promise

The dream not die, it had never lived

An ill destined climb

Toward the city upon the hill

Never the first

There will ever be more still

Within in the land of opportunity

A thousand tombs await

A toast to thee, oh captains of industry

It was always you,

You always held our fate