Saga of the Ancient Mississippi (FOP 2005)

(To the tune of Okie from Muskogee)

Drew Phillips, Ardith Hansel, Andy Stumpf, Chris Stohr, and Pius Weibel

 

We’re here to find the buried bedrock valley,

Where the ancient Mississippi once did flow

‘Neath the fill brought in by Ice Age glaciers

An old valley is still there, that, we know.

 

The record’s not so easy to unravel

With loesses, tills, and gravels to review,

What we need are a few more good exposures,

Geophysics, and a damn good drillin’ crew.

 

The pink and polished sands above the bedrock,

The old timers, the Sankoty sand, did name,

They said it marked the very first glaciation

But younger sands we’ve found are much the same.

 

The Mississippi, spiked with glacial waters,

From ice born in Keewatin and Labrador,

In Illinois, was oft diverted westward

Whene’r the Lake Mich’gan lobe did plough it o’er.

 

A final time that stretch of ancient valley

‘Tween Princeton and Rock Island town was filled

With ice and sand and mud that blocked the drainage

Until glacial Lake Milan, it overspilled!

 

The hist’ry’s not so easy to unscramble

With ice lobes and diversions to confuse,

Oh, what we need are some good ways ofdatin’

To sort those sediments o’er which we muse.

 

So friends, that’s truly our sad story

Of how the present Mississippi came to be

A border river, ‘tween Iowa and Illinois

Instead of wand’rin’ free ‘cross the wide prairie.

 

Yet, still we have the present Ill’nois Valley

And the ancient record’s here, so come and see!