MICHIGAN, OUR MICHIGAN
Here on the water like a hand in a mitten on the
Sands of dunes and miles of golden shore, lies
Michigan, Our Michigan! And we couldn’t love it more!
It’s home for all, with Native Americans
Who have lived here since long before.
Bordered by the sparkling inland seas,
Bejeweled with snowy sails that catch the breeze,
Lake Michigan, Superior, Huron and Erie too,
Michigan, Our Michigan green is cradled in blue.
Michigan’s natural beauty shines,
Accented with the scent of holiday pines.
Blazing color in the Fall, maple sugar in the Spring
Woods full of animals and birds that soar and sing!
Everybody knows of all the world around
No place more beautiful can be found.
In winter, summer, spring and fall,
Michigan, Our Michigan! The greatest state of all!
ANISNEHBEK
They lived in many wigwams all along the big lake shore.
You hardly ever see a house like that here any more
They hunted game and trapped for furs, and fished to feed the tribes
And so they had to travel north or south for their whole lives.
Because in Michigan the seasons scramble ev’rything
And creatures hibernate when winter’s cold begins to fling
Its icy fingers into all their dens and homes you know
And wigwams were never insulated
It’s cold! Move south! It’s warm! Move north!
It’s cold! Move south! Move, move, move, move.
As time went on they built new home
So they could settle down
They cut some trees and planted crops
And lived in many a town
The Ottawa, the Chippewa,
The Potawatomi
Were living here for many years
In pleasant harmony
They knew the woods and waterfalls
The rivers and streams
They welcomed many pioneers
Who came to dream their dreams
The priests, fur traders, the lumbermen, the miners,
They came, came, came, came, came.

FUR
Fur, fur, beautiful fur, It’s really the animal’s skin.
They hunted and trapped to take it,
‘Twas the thing to do back then.
Fur, fur, beautiful fur, made thick and lush by the cold.
So abundant were the animals then,
Their hides were like pure gold!
The trappers killed the beaver, mink and
Muskrat, elk and deer.
In fact the lynx and bear and fox were nearly gone from here
Their fur was soft, the fur was warm,
More beautiful than things manmade
It was really very valuable for
Indians who trapped to trade
Fur, fur….
Now animals have disappeared that
Used to roam our woods
People’s greed destroyed them
Just to trade for other goods
And all the while our Michigan
Could only watch and wait
Until the miners and their ships
Would start to show her fate. Oh…fur, fur…
Voyageurs
To the woods of Michigan we will go together
We will leave the settled life far, far behind
Even on the coldest days, we won’t mind the weather
If we know our fortunes we soon will find
Un, deux, un deux trios
Paddling the big canoes, gathering the furs
Un deux, un deux trios
We’re the boys who came from France, we are the voyageurs
In our caps of apple red, sashes of bright yellow
We’re as handsome as the birds sitting in the trees
Even when we’rew working hard we are merry fellows
When we have a song to sing with many harmonies
Even in the cold and rain, we don’t worry do we?
We just laugh and turn our backs and sing another song
Trapping beaver and muskrat for the good King Louie
Or trading with the Indians as we go along
Now our home is Michigan, we don’t want another
We’re content to stay right here with one regret
How we miss the cooking of our Auntie and our Mother
We would love a fat croissant and an omelette!

Mackinac Bridge
Oh the Mackinaw Bridge (repeat)
She’s a mighty fine bridge
Five hundred feet high
And five miles long
Well in the Straits of Mackinac there’s about as much water as you ever saw
And the folks who lived there tried and tried, But they couldn’t get across to the other side
Couldn’t get across without a boat or a plane, Couldn’t take a bus or a trolley or a train
Couldn’t swim across, it was as cold as a fridge…so they thought they better build themselves a bridge!
So in nineteen hundred and fifty-four they started linking shore to shore
From Mackinaw City to St. Ignace town, and the men on the top didn’t dare look down!
In ‘fifty-seven the work was through, and there she was all shiny and new
So they had a big party and they called out loud “She’s the Mackinac Bridge and we are proud!”
I Never Will Sail
I’ve Been a Sailor all my life, ever since I was a baby.
My mama cried when I was two cause I ran away to join the Navy.
I packed my diapers in a bag and I kissed her on the cheek
I sailed away in the kitchen sink and I said I’d write next week!
Oh Ho ho ho…he he he…
I never will sail on those great lakes for that’d be the end of me!
First I sailed the South Seas with their monsters by the dozens
I got in a fight with a giant squid and fifteen of his cousins
But they didn’t scare me one little bit; I tied them in a bunch
And I fried them up with cheddar cheese, and I ate ‘em for my lunch! Oh!
Then I sailed the ocean that they call Atlantic
Where a pirate with just one glass eye had all the folks there frantic
I said I’d make him toe the line, and it wasn’t very hard
I warned him if he didn’t behave, I’d take his library card! Oh!
Then I went to Michigan to sail that famous lake
And still I wasn’t nervous when the boat began to shake
Then the sky grew dark until I couldn’t see my First Mate Tommy
And I grabbed my favorite Teddy Bear and said, “I want my Mommy!”

Roll Loggers Roll
We came from the East and we came in a lone (Roll Loggers Roll)
To the Saginaw Valley to cut the White Pine (Roll you loggers Roll)
We were swampers and river hogs, shanty boys too (Roll loggers Roll)
We all were a part of the whole logging crew (Roll you loggers Roll)
Roll (Clap) Roll (Clap) Roll you loggers Roll (Clap! Clap!)
For breakfast there was pancakes with gravy and beans (RLR)
Taters and sowbelly, coffee and tea (RYLR)
Then off to the woods in the dark we would go (RLR)
To work all day long in the cold and the snow (RYLR)
Sometimes we’d dress up and go into town – (RLR)
To flirt with the girls and to drink cider down (RYLR)
The winters were long and the lice they did bite (RLR)
But it’s not a bad life and we liked it all right (RYLR)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind
When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

Wheels
It used to be that to get to town
You had to keep a horse and a wagon around
And it took a long time to cover that ground
But there wasn’t much a body could do
Then some guys named Olds and Ford got smart
And they put an engine on a four wheeled cart
And it ran pretty good once they got it to start
With just a little nudge or two: and it went:
Honk Honk Beep Beep Bumpa Chicka Bumpa Chicka (2x)
Honk Honk Beep Beep Bumpa chicka bumpa chicka Honk Honk!!
When that buggy came rumbling down the street
A commotion started that couldn’t be beat
Why ladies fainted right off of their feet
They’d never seen such power
Dogs were barking and children ran
And down for a look came every man
And they gasped at the sight of this big tin can
Going twenty miles an hour; and it went chorus
Well those horse and buggy days are past
And folks quit saying “it’ll never last”
And we have big factories to put’em out fast
In every color and size
Now there’s sporty cars with chrome on the side
And family cars with families inside
And fancy cars where the rich folks ride
From that first automotive surprise; and it went
Chorus

Michigan Waltz
Spring in this country starts windy and gray til the sun settles in chasing winter away
The mourning dove calls as the leaves take their bow, You can smell the dark earth turning under the plow:
And the days they grow longer, our feet they go bare as the drone of the bees puts a spell in the air.
Round and round go the seasons in Michigan. Round and round like a waltz on the floor.
Turn, Swing, Slide…Step back again. And always we dance one more.
Summer’s a symphony, a joyous crescendo
Of berries and sweet corn and grass in the meadow
The Great Lakes come crashing down onto the land
While the dunes lay like giants asleep in the sand
Night sounds ring out neath a waxed paper moon
Til the harvest begins and it’s over too soon
Chorus
Bittersweet Autumn brings frost in the morning
When the maple and sumac catch fire without warning
There’s pumpkins and cider and smoke on the wind
And the wild geese say, “goodbye, we’ll be back again.”
Indian Summer puts on a good show
‘Til a blast from the North brings a sky full of snow
Chorus
In the silence of Winter in trees beyond number
You can still hear faint echoes of long ago lumbermen
Dancing and laughing with songs all around
And the snow lays like sugar on city and town
Throw a log on the fire, the hard work is done
‘Til the smelt fill the rivers and sap starts to run
Chorus