Springhill Mining Disaster

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia

Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine

There's blood on the coal and the miners lie

In roads that never saw sun nor sky.

In the town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy

Often the earth will tremble and roll

When the earth is restless, miners die

Bone and blood is the price of coal.

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia

Late in the year of fifty-eight

The day still comes and the sun still shines

(But it's) Dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine.

Down at the coal face, miners working

Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade

Rumble of the rock and the walls closed round

(The) Living and the dead men two miles down.

Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft

Twelve men lay in the dark and sang

Long hot days in the miners tomb

(It was) Three feet high and a hundred long.

Three days past and the lamps gave out

And Caleb Rushton got up and and said

We've no more water, or light, or bread

(So we'll) Live on song and hope instead.

Listen for the shouts of the blackfaced miners

Listen thru the rubble for a rescue team

Three hundred feet of coal and slag

Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam.

Twelve days passes and some were rescued

Leaving the dead to lie alone

Thru all their days they dug their grave

Two miles of earth for a marking stone.