Wagon Train
By: Wayne Brown
We left St. Louis yesterday across the plains to the West
Weathering many miles, dangers, and months before we rest
It’s a wagon train to California led by Captain Tom Jerome
All belongings in these wagons headin’ for our new home
It’s springtime in Missouri and the grass is growing green
Those wagon wheels cut fresh ruts as we head across the plain
We have to make the mountain pass before the snows of fall
If we do not arrive on schedule the winter will stop us all
Ben Bonner's got his wife and kids in the wagon up ahead
Their headin’ to California to break a new homestead
Sam Johnson and his brother are on the wagon to our back
Their off to mine the rivers and put some gold in their sack
My wagon has a bit more room with just me and my new wife
We’re off to California to start working on our new life
We’ll have a farm, some cattle and maybe a couple of kids
Then we’ll look back on this journey and smile at what we did
Some of the wagons are pulled by oxen, some by horse and mule
Just keep up with the train, don’t drop out, that’s the biggest rule
There’s danger out there on the plains, both outlaw and Indians
Of all that we will encounter not many will be our friends
At night we form a circle of the wagons, out here called a laager
It helps us pen our livestock and offers protection from the danger
We cook our food around the fires, share stories and tall tales
Then come the morn, we're off again in these schooners without sails
The storms dance the skies across these vast flat grassy plains
The winds blow down off the Rockies and brings in the rains
Still we march along plodding through the mud and gust
To get to California, we must travel from dawn to dusk
The wagons fan out to each side to get some relief from the dust
The rain comes in torrent sheets and the winds come in gust
Our faces are sunburned and our throats will dry and parch
But save the precious waters for the coming desert march
After weeks of steady traveling the mountains are in sight
We should be crossing them in a day and just another night
Once we get through the pass, our wagons head down to the sea
And all around will be California, a new land for Sara and me
Ol’ Hank Parker lost his wife to fever back on now a week
Shorty Tompkins drowned while trying to swim a little creek
Matt and Sally Walker have a new son born under this sky
We seen a lot of happy and some sad that makes you cry
The mountain road is narrow and these hills are mighty high
Some times I fear we will fall back down the side and die
We all have to work as teams to get these wagons along
Ain't no doing it without the help of Captain Tom Jerome
Struggling our teams and wagons right up to the crest
It looks like we’ll make it, everyone has done their best
We’re on that downhill run for the California land
We’re no longer green; we’ve become a pioneering band
Captain Jerome stops his horse and points there away
He’s point to the land we came for; we’ll make it there today
We’ve survived the long hard journey to see it with our eyes
At the end of this journey, a fertile farming valley lies
Settling into our new land, we’ll begin to build our new home
We’ve arrived at the end of the journey, no more need to roam
But when the sun sets and at and we think back of the plain
We’ll have those precious memories of life in the wagon train
© Copyright WBrown2010. All Rights Reserved.
© 2010 Wayne Brown