Goin Back To Moosonee/ On The Banks Of Old James Bay/ Poem by Paul Henry Dallaire

John Horden was the first missionary to open a church in Moose Factory just across the bay from Moosonee in the middle 1700's and in the spring to break the ice, they would fire a big black canon. I guess the echoing concusion of the shot helped break the ice in the bay.

Goin back to Moosonee /on the Banks Of Old James Bay


I left a little town a little west of Cochrane town
Had to be back in Moosonee before the ground turns to brown
I'll mush my team and old dog sled in the land of ice 'n snow
I'm goin back to marry her so up north I will go

Many years I've been away a long time I've been gone
How I miss my mother and dad and all the folks around
But the one I miss especially is a girl I turned away
Prospecting for a gold mine a little south of Kirkland lake

North and west and treckin neath the cold winter sun
The Northern Lights would dance at night till the crack of dawn
When the temperature plunged I thought I'd die at forty nine below
I froze my scalp to the packsac I used for my pillow

Still on and on I pushed along when that Norther wind would blow
in the summer it's the blackflies of North Ontario
De keyper rum would keep me warm when there was nothing left
Goin through the Great Muskeg I nearly froze to death

I miss those rushing waters of the place where I was born
Just to hunt again the bear and otter on a cold and frosty morn
In spring they'll fire that big black canon breaking all the ice
Then It's Water Taxi to Moose Factory to hug my future wife

Next time I'll buy a ticket on the Polar Bear Express
Sitting in the club car like a snowbird I will rest
Cause mushing through the snow ain't what it's made out to be
Curse the white man but should thank him for the snow machine

When at last I reach that little town on the Banks Of Old James Bay
I hope she'll be still waiting and I'm wondering what she'll say
We'll marry in John Horden's church there we'll kneel and pray
In my heart will be springtime until my dyin day

Paul Henry Dallaire
Paul Henry Pub.
SOCAN.CA
U.S.Rep: ASCAP

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