July 2025: We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie

Submitted by Lee Murdock

This song was sung by Captain Pearl Nye of Akron, Ohio to a number of folklorists—John and Alan Lomax and Ivan Walton, to name just a few. Having worked the Ohio and Erie Canal for many years, Nye was a treasure trove of songs, stories and anecdotes from the canal era. These canals needed portage lakes to supply water for navigation, to keep water levels up. After most of the canals closed operations, the lakes became vacation destinations for the growing middle class of the early twentieth century, and remain so to this day.

Listen to Lee’s version:

Lyrics

We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie
By Captain Pearl R. Nye; arrangement by Lee Murdock

The season is dry, old timer,
And water won’t run uphill.
So let’s do our best to forget the rest
and keep our levels full.

Chorus:
We’re going to pump out Lake Erie.
We’re going to begin next June.
And when we get done, you can tell by the sun
they’ll be whiskers on the moon.

The portage lakes sometimes fail us
and often are much too low.
Oh, and then for rain we’d have to wait,
for loaded we cannot go.

We will watch our gates and paddles. Yes, the tumbles and wasteways, too.
They’ll help us along with their merry song,
and we’ll see that we get through.

For the canal needs the water to keep things afloat
and never will put wheels on my old canal boat,
for I love the old tow-path and anything afloat.
So you cannot make a wagon of my grand old boat.

Lee Murdock has one foot in contemporary folk music, and one foot firmly planted in the folk music tradition. After studying the traditional folk songs of the British Isles and Appalachian American music, Lee has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories about the Great Lakes. Lee has released 21 CDs from 1981 to 2018, with each recording presenting a balance of traditional, original and contemporary music with a ear to expanding the audience of folk music lovers.