Lyrics Opening The West - Johnny Cash

Opening The West

And the shining Rocky Mountains looked down on the people coming
Strong and sturdy freedom lovin' settlers cowboys pioneers
Now no foreign crown would rule them
Now a nation strong was standing even bigger was it growing
Added Iowa, Wisconsin then broke through the shining mountains
Staked a claim on California
Panned the gold out of its rivers irrigated desert valleys
Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas now were added to the total
Making 34 to number of the States now in the Union
And the years 1860 to 65 the history books’re full of it
The sadness the heartbreak and the songs of that period
Tell us of a sadness and of a heartbreak when the nation was torn asunder