Gustavus never saw the grasses of Dawson wave
He never imagined all that energy wasted on a rain dance
His city was built to protect the sea traders
The ships of Keiller never knew the plains
The children lay beneath rusting wrought iron crosses
Their parents friends with an agent for the U.P.
Who came in advance to build sod houses for workers
Easy terms no down payment finance
Get them from Sweden with promises of freedom
Promise them 160 and a plow
The railroad needed labor
And everyone needed a second chance
Make a fence of barbed wire, make a sculpture too
Robert Henri had to change how he signed his work
When his father shot Pearson in the pasture
But underneath the paint he was a Cozad
All of those Swedes
Settling along the 100th meridian
Left the Baltic coast behind
No longer beholden to the arms of Gastrikland
No longer beholden to the arms of Gastrikland
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