Dead man’s Flats
Words and music; J. Knutson

Back in the winter of 23
I set out for the coast with my family
The winter had come and taken its toll
It left my parents in the ground and us on the road
My brother cursed the land from which we’d come
That’s the last I remember of Saskatchewan

Three weeks later when we hit the badlands
My brother got sick, and with a bible in his hands
I buried him there in the mountain’s view
Now I was all alone and had to carry through
From the Dead man’s Flats I saw the next sunrise
That’s the last time I saw the prairie skies

Now it’s flat out forward, no turning back
They left me there stranded on the Dead Man’s Flats
I wasn’t prepared for the frontal attack
That left me all alone like a dead man, out on the Dead Man’s Flats

I caught a freight train at the pass out of Calgary
All I had was on my back when I reached B.C.
I had no money to my name
I hadn’t eaten in days
The lord sure works in mysterious ways
As the sun filtered down through the evergreens
There was the prettiest valley that I’d ever seen

Chorus

So I lived out my days in that golden valley
Got some land and raised my own family
But every once and a while when I hear the winds blow
It takes me back to the flats that I used to know
And as I turn to that sound, with a tear in my eye
I hear the souls of my family from the eastern sky

Chorus