Song of the 'Alcan" Pioneers

Song of the “Alcan” Pioneers

They gave us a job and we did it:

They said that it couldn’t be done

They figured that time would forbid it

They licked us before we’d begun

But there she is – eagles above her

The Road –see, she steams in the snow.

She’s ours, and oh God, how we love her,

But now --- marching orders – we go.

We started with nothing and won her,

We diced for her honor with death

We starved, froze and died upon her

And damned her with agonized breath

Blood-red ran the snow where we lay –

Blood-red rode the sun at her setting,

Cold white are the graves we’re forgetting

Cold white are our ashes today.

We leveled the mountains to find her,

We climbed from the pit to the sky

We conquered the forests to bind her

We burrowed where mastodons lie

Smooth, straight and true we have

Fashioned

Clean she is, living, aglow,

The Road --- feel her, vibrant

Impassioned –

And now – marching orders – we go.

Go from the stardust of June night,

Go from the beauty we won,

Little lost lakes in the moonlight,

Snow-steepled spires in the sun.

We lend you the road – we who made it,

And bright may your victories burn,

We lend you The Road – we who laid it,

Until the day we return.

Attributed to “an unknown soldier”, this poem first

Appeared in 1950 in Milepost