Half Mile Down

They come down from Washington city, to our Blue Ridge mountain home

And across that crooked river, to the valley down below

I was swimmin' in that water when they came up to the shore

Sayin' sorry son, this won't be, dry land here anymore



Yes and my home town is a half mile down

It's a half mile of water all around all around

My home town is a half mile down



First they started their surveyin' and makin' up their plans

to flood that peaceful valley, just to build Watauga Dam

Oh they brought in their bulldozers and pushed our homes away

And they handed me a shovel, and sixty cents a day



Singin' my home town is a half mile down

It's a half mile of water all around all around

My home town is a half mile down



So they stripped out all the timber, and they leveled all the land

And they drilled and dynamited, till they blew the mountains in

I tore down my old home place, and I dug up daddy's grave

And I relocated mama, to fourteen miles away



Now I look out on the water, that rose up on that day

By the banks of the old Watauga, where I once used to play

Yes I look out on that water, where they made their big mistake

And covered up our hometown 'neath the Godforsaken lake



Singin' my home town is a half mile down

It's a half mile of water all around all around

My home town is a half mile down

It's a half mile of water all around all around

My home town is a half mile down.