1940 ft. John Lucas Lyrics

They sold every tree on the mountain

From Seven Devils to Deep Gap

Cut ties with the natives when

They wouldn't give up their holy land

Summer of 1940 when the hurricane

Came and stayed

Five days of rain over filled the banks

The rivers took back everything

Twenty-one inches of rain

The mountains gave way

In the attic mama's holding the babe

But the water's rising

Polly Ward's house down in Cove Creek

Floated for three miles in one piece

Richard Gilliam took a clothesline

Tied his house to a cedar that night

Ben Ward's saw mill was washed away

His trucks were found near the Tennessee line

Like a thief in the night the avalanche came

Took all three girls from Eliza Greene

Twenty-one inches of rain

The mountains gave way

In the attic mama's holding the babe

But the water's rising

And they all knew then if they wouldn't have sold their timber

The landslides wouldn't have come

Every bridge washed out by that cold dark river

Would've still been there to hold them up

Twenty-one inches of rain

The mountains gave way

In the attic mama's holding the babe

But the water's rising