(Verse 1)
The South Platte river whispers, a timeless, running sound
Past the bones of a hotel, on hallowed, hollow ground
The timber's gray and splintered, the windows boarded tight
But a ghost of 1912 still lingers in the light
Where Charles and Millie Walbrecht built a refuge from the road
A place for weary travelers to lay down their heavy load.
(Chorus)
Oh, the South Platte Hotel, a memory in the stone
Where the river's two forks meet and the past is overgrown
It saw the railroad coming, it saw the stagecoach go
A forgotten story that the mountain breezes know.
(Verse 2)
The lobby hummed with laughter, the fishing rods were new
On summer afternoons, beneath a Colorado sky of blue
The croquet mallets clacked, the stories flowed like beer
Until a stage coach driver arrived and brought his rage
He fired on the Walbrechts, a flash in the dark
And left a burning monument, a final, fiery mark.
(Chorus)
Oh, the South Platte Hotel, a memory in the stone
Where the river's two forks meet and the past is all but forgotten
It saw the railroad coming, it saw the stagecoach go
A forgotten story that the mountain breezes know.
(Bridge)
They say he took his own life, unstable as the wind
But the scars he left behind are still here today
They rebuilt it in the next few years, just to show they wouldn't break
A testament to courage, for their own and for goodness' sake.
(Verse 3)
Now a rusty, barbed-wire fence stands guard against the years.
The rafters sag with silence, the floorboards creek no more
But every time I pass it, the wind blows right through
And I wonder what the Walbrechts would think of what they see
A monument to all that was, From the ashes they raised above.
(Outro)
Yeah, the South Platte Hotel, a memory in the stone
Where the river's two forks meet and the past is overgrown
A fading picture in the heart of the Rockies.
Just a ghost of a building, a beautiful, broken dream.
