To Challenge the Years

(To Pioneers of Fort Franklin, Idaho's First Settlement)

Hark to the song the Bear River is singing
Slow-winding through farms with their rich fruited loam,
Through villages, cities, its echoes clear-ringing
Retelling how pioneers founded a home.

Hark to the rhythm of wagon wheels rolling!
Mothers are queens, their gowns calico ...
Startled are prairies: A church bell is tolling ...
Wagon-box homes birth our loved Idaho ...

Primal land conquered: Sowing and reaping--
Hours are numbered by blessings, not woes--
Man bent to purpose: The desert is leaping--
Cooling canals--its triumph the rose!

Listen! In stillness the moon-threaded river
Sings in its saga how pioneer-tears
Bright-pearled the valley ... "God is the Giver!"
The message it lyrics to challenge the years.