Local resident and singer/songwriter, Kate Canan, was inspired to write her own song against the reopening of the Idaho-Maryland Mine. Check out her performance with with Tom Wernigg on the guitar.
Lyrics
Fool’s Gold
At first the 49ers came
With picks and pans and mules
Soon they were blasting out the motherlode
Operating with no rules
Our land still bears the scars
They’re back with money and greed
Can’t let them open up the mine
We have all the gold we’ll ever need—
Chorus:
Sunlight sparkling in our streams
Oak leaves dancing in the fall
Wildflowers carpeting the foothills
A golden way of life for us all
2nd Verse:
Water fills the old mines
They’d have to pump it out
Sending toxins into Wolf Creek
Destroying wells all about
Diesel fumes, asbestos fibers
Poisoning our air
We must unite to tell them
We have gold already, everywhere—
Chorus
3rd Verse:
Machinery pounding, hammering
Trucks, a hundred trips a day
Near hospital and senior homes
Can’t let exploiters have their way
Forest habitats erased by
Seven story piles of tailings
Peace of mind destroyed unless we
Save the gold that never fails in
Chorus
Bridge:
Tunnel down, blast it out, and haul up the ore
Snake down beneath our town,
always looking for more
Then crush it and smelt it and mold it into ingots
Store it back underground in vaults
Coda:
Our land still bears the scars
They’re back with lies and greed
Can’t let them open up the mine
We have all the gold we need.
©Kathryn Canan, September 29, 2021