Big River Meets Big Ice
(Sung to the tune of Okie From Muskogee)
Played by Drew Phillips, Pius Weibel, and others
(for another version, see Saga of the Ancient Mississippi)

It's all covered by a thick loess blanket
Over a floor of swamps and warm oceans
Dirt from ice and rivers everlasting
That came and went and came and went again

The Mississippi met the Mighty Mahomet
Before running on down to Old Mexico
It carved a deep and spacious valley
Filled by silts and sands and clays from Ontario

The pink and polished sands above the bedrock
Were thought to be Nebraskan alluvium
But pink sand is not a restricted unit
And the Sankoty Member is pre-Illino-i-an

The Old Miss flowed from Davenport to Eureka
Through Hopewell and Senachewine land
But Ice storming from Lake Michigan Basin
Turned its course to west of Rock Island

The first time the ice retreated northward
The Mississippi returned to the Big Bend
But the sixth time proved an uphill battle
And Old Miss stayed in the Hawkeye can-y-on

Water filled behind the Marseilles mountains
Forming lakes across the Kankakee till plain
But Corps design was not yet in existence
And jokhulhaups cascaded down the valley train

Torrents crashed and spilled o'er Lover's Leap
Giant dunes were left atop the upland
Boulders carved the bedrock valley deep
And Mason County was covered by outwash sand

The stagnant pool that now lies stretched before you
Was tamed by the Corps and its minions
The infestation of beasts from freighter bilges
Will be tamed in turn when the glaciers ride again