Tunnel 13

In the Siskiyou Mountains, the old railroad winds

Through the golds of the maples and the green of the pines

Up to Tunnel 13, the Southern she climbs

And three bandits waiting with evil in mind

The D'Autremont brothers had chosen their road

Chosen to live by a criminal code

Word was the mail car was loaded with gold

The brothers had heard it, or had maybe been told

They wanted no witnesses, that was a fact

The brothers were bent on a barbarous act

Gold there was none, only sadness and tears

And the law coming after them year after year

Three bandits, hearts filled with resentment and hate

Killed mail clerk Elvyn Daugherty, engineer Sydney Bates

With shotgun and pistols, they were panicking when

They killed brakeman Coyle Johnson and fireman Marvin Seng

Robbing and looting is as old as the hills

They're still jumping freight trains with crowbars and drills

A hundred years later in Downtown LA

They rob the Union Pacific damn near every day

Four good men lay murdered in the dogwoods and pines

Leaving widows and children and heartbreak behind

Tunnel 13 is the place in the song

Where the beautiful redwood for my guitar came from