Have you ever seen a field alive with green Thimbleweed and columbine and clover Heard the black billed magpie call As Summer fades to Fall Watched the meadow turn to perfect white all over I've lived here eighty years And before it disappears There are so many things I'd love to show you Wondrous and serene But if you don't know what I mean Then you've never been to North Dakota Have you looked up and read the note Aurora Borealis wrote While you were gently sung to sleep by a coyote Felt your joints get stiff and cold To let you know you're growing old Till then you've never been to North Dakota Well I guess you've heard the news The oil trucks coming through For a prairie moon they don't care one iota Stand on the Cheyenne River shore And watch a Golden Eagle soar 'Till then you've never been to North Dakota A long and dusty road Wind swept pasture land Green and white and yellow in the sunshine Listen hear the Sharptailed Grouse Watch the tiny meadow mouse Smell the chilly wind come through the Ponderosa Pine But a new crowd's come about And inflation pushed me out So long my friends it's sure been good to know you They can drill for oil and stay But no matter what they say None of them have really been to North Dakota