Lyrics

The Legend of Sleeping Bear
Michael Camp, New Pair-O-Dimes Music, ASCAP

Down from the Ottawa, comes a legend of the land
three black bear looking across the water from Wisconsin sand
It might've been the rainless sky that made them start to swim
but the chiefs have said, the Spirit led, the mother
and her twins

Looking across to Michigan, the she-bear saw the trees
standing half as high as the sun, bending in the breeze
the land was green and the hills rolled on
for many miles away
there, she thought, may my children grow
until their dying day

Many miles beyond the shore, the 2 cubs played ahead
my children you mustn't stray to far
the swimming mother said
for the land that we are going to will hold us in good time
but as she swam she didn't see
the little cubs fall behind

The first born sank beneath the waves and took his dyin' breath
the second never reached the shore before he met his death
and as she climbed upon the sand, the mother bear fell asleep
and never awoke to see the land that holds her
in good keep