Lyrics to "Hooray for Hetch Hetchy

Words and music by Bill Oliver © 2005 & 2018 Bill Oliver, Texas Deck Music, BMI

The effort to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park is continuing to swell. “Hooray for Hetch Hetchy” by Bill Oliver was commissioned as the “theme song” for Restore Hetch Hetchy in 2005. The song invites you to visit a restored Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park:

Imagine yourself in Hetch Hetchy
On a sunny day in June
Standing waist deep in grasses and flowers
As John Muir often stood
While the great pines sway
With scarcely a motion
The waterfalls like thistledown
The water is woven in patterns and tones

That spirits might wear as a gown

Tueeulala Falls, Wapama Falls
Surging and frozen in time
Reverberating, rejoicing, and waiting
Chilling, haunting, sublime

Imagine yourself in Hetch Hetchy
Hiking up Kolana Rock
Two thousand feet over the Valley
Named by the ancient Miwok

Their spirits are here
The glaciers are here
If only this granite could talk
They do if you listen
And waterfalls glisten
When life if slowed down to a walk

Tueeulala Falls, Wapama Falls
Replenish the Tuolumne
The high mountain air
The deer and the bear
The mystery of Hetch Hetchy

Imagine a second Yosemite
One without all the cars
A treaty ‘twixt humans and Nature
Restoring and healing the scars

The meadows will bloom
The trees will resume
Their journeys up to the stars
As life reappears, the dam disappears
And we realize who we are

Tueeulala Falls will fall once again
To a Tuolumne River set free
And the world will come here
And hold this place dear
The miracle of Hetch Hetchy

HOORAY FOR HETCH HETCHY
Yosemite’s twin
We can all help give its freedom again
HOORAY FOR HETCH HETCHY
Soon to be seen
A grand landscape garden
Of the American Dream

Words and music by Bill Oliver © 2005 & 2018 Bill Oliver, Texas Deck Music, BMI
Some lyrics are adapted from John Muir’s book, The Yosemite.

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