Roll on, Columbia, Roll On was written by folk singer Woody Guthrie as part of the Columbia River Ballads. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) hired Guthrie in 1941 after Alan Lomax recommended him for the job of writing folk songs about the hydroelectric dams that were being built on the Columbia River. The result of this month long commission was 26 songs including Roll on, Columbia.
Bonneville Dam and Grand Coulee Dam were built on the Columbia River as part of the New Deal and were owned by the federal government. To facilitate the electricity from these dams the US Department of Energy created the BPA to sell and distribute the power. However, several counties began construction of their own dams on the Columbia, outside of the federal jurisdiction. The BPA launched a program to gain support for dam building in the Pacific Northwest and for federal regulation of the hydroelectricity. As part of this program they hired Guthrie to write these propaganda songs.
Guthrie was driven all around Washington and Oregon so the sites of the Columbia and her tributaries could inspire him. He was from Oklahoma and didn't know much about the Pacific Northwest. Guthrie was glad he was able to tour and get a feel for the area. He commented, "These Pacific Northwest songs and ballads have all got these personal feelings for me because I was there on these very spots and very grounds before."
Of the Columbia River songs Roll on, Columbia, a song about harnessing the Mighty Columbia to help farms and industry with electrical power, was by far the most popular. Because of the song's message and popularity, it was established as the official folk song of Washington State in 1987.
Chorus:
- Roll on, Columbia, roll on
- Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on.
- Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through
- Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew
- Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blue
- Roll on Columbia, roll on
- Other great rivers add power to you
- Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too
- Sandy Willamette and Hood River too
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on
- Tom Jefferson's vision would not let him rest
- An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest
- Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on
- It's there on your banks that we fought many a fight
- Sheridan's boys in the blockhouse that night
- They saw us in death but never in flight
- So roll on Columbia, roll on
- At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks
- The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks
- Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on
- And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam
- The mightiest thing ever built by a man
- To run the great factories and water the land
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on
- These mighty men labored by day and by night
- Matching their strength 'gainst the river's wild flight
- Through rapids and falls, they won the hard fight
- So roll on, Columbia, roll on