Chords are alternating Dm, F, and C, in standard Irish-style ballad

When i was a young man, a free man of twenty 

I traveled all over the land

And the rails I did ride until Union Carbide

Put a paycheck and a pick in my hand

With 3000 men back in 27

To take the New River northwest 

From the high sandstone hill over to Gauley’s Mill

With a tunnel down under Hawk’s Nest 

 

When we got the command to mine the rock sand

For the use in the company mill

Then we dug for the stone in the mountain’s deep bones

To the sound of a dry running drill

The dust cut your sight and turned your skin white 

And the cough rattled round in your chest
Out of the sight of God and the light 

In the tunnel down under Hawk’s Nest 

 

It wasn’t too strong ‘til your cough got so strong

That you’d fall out of place in the line

Then the company doc would give you the talk

And say you’d be better in time 

But time’s gone on and there’s more of us gone 

Than the company’s ever confessed 

For there’s 500 souls that we lost in the hole 

we were digging down under Hawk’s Nest 

 

Now the company says that they’ve paid all they owe

But I ain’t seen as much as a dime

There’s a pain in my chest like the cold grip of death 

And I know that it won’t be much time 

My kids are half grown, they’ll be on their own 

Once that they lay me to rest
And the mountain will stand like a cross in the sand

For the men who died under Hawk’s nest