Lyrics

Tahoma Paradise M. Stenberg

Intro. |G |Dm |G |Dm |A7 |(Hold) |
|Dm A |Dm |G |Dm |
As the iron rails made their way through the forests for which they came. They
|G |Dm |A7 | |
Brought the ax and laid the tracks for the Lumber-jack.

Timber was the Mother Lode hauled off on a mountain railroad.
The Iron Horse set the course for an unyielding force.

Ancient old growth stands on sacred Indian lands
Blinded men from what’s always been home of the Indian.

Refrain:
|Dm A |Dm |G |Dm |
Put my Home on a mountain railroad. Haul it away on the tracks they laid.
|G |Dm |A7 | |
Leave me to cry beneath the sky and wonder why they’ve taken my Ta-
|Gm | |Dm | |Gm | |Dm | |
homa Paradise, Ta homa Paradise

Inst.: |G |Dm |G |Dm |A7 |(Hold) |

You can hear the Lumberjack yell, “Timber” as the trees are fell.
It’s a haunting sound, trees crashing down as they shake the forest ground.

Without a worry or care the forest is soon stripped bare.
With the timber gone wildlife moved on now the salmon barely spawn.

Many a track and trestle left to rot and crumble.
There abandon throughout the canyon are tracks the trains came on.

Repeat Refrain & Inst.:

Living on the forests edge, where the clams and the oysters’ bed.
The cedar grows, straight grain in rows prized as much as gold.

In the distance I hear a sledge falling hard on an iron wedge
It splits the shake from a cedar plank for buildings that they make.

From morning and all day long, you can hear his sledge and saw.
When the cedars spent and the shakes are split, who knows where they’re sent.

Repeat Refrain & Inst.:

Tahoma’s’ graceful stance, with the forest she will dance
From an eagles’ perch she’ll lift her skirt to sooth the forests hurt.

Today who can remember the land of virgin timber?
Yet there are those for whom its home, to them this tales well known.

For now, the forests charm gives way to a logging farm.
Every 100 years the crop matures, and the harvest brings me to tears.