Lyrics
The chorus is:
- Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
- To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
- Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
- And make a northwest passage to the sea
The narrator states that he is taking "passage overland in the footsteps of brave Kelso" three centuries after. This refers to Henry Kelsey, an English explorer of what is now northern Canada, who had explored the area 290 years prior. Whether the name "Kelso" is in itself an error or a diminutive nickname is unclear. The lines "To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea" and "seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones/and a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones" commemorate the Franklin expedition. Stan Rogers indicated that he was unsure of details in writing the song, and worked from memory.
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