Owed to Dr. Beus

Owed to Dr.Stanley B: Geology Professor, NAU)

We’ve Been Walking Up the Mesas

(Sung to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”)


We’ve been walking up the mesas
All the live-long day.
We’ve been traveling down the synclines
Just to pass this course some way.
Don’t you see the strata bending,
Sometimes up then down;
Faults and fissures slickenside-ing
All the way to town?

We’ve seen molten rock and cinders,
Spires, laccoliths and swells,
Canyon depths, high-peaked mountains,
And trails through Paleo SeasHells!
Sandstone walls (desert-varnished)
Ripple marks everywhere-
Unconformities and sand dunes
Strike and dip out there.

We’ve been picking up some fossils
All along the way
(Bits and chunks of ancient varmints),
To fill our bags today.
Trilobites, brachs and crinoids,
Dinosaurs and sponges too-
Keeping track of all the phyla
Creates a busy crew.

We enjoyed our little bus ride
All around the West.
Busy work on all our field notes
May not have been our best;
Stratigraphic columns kept us busy
As you well can see.
Dr. Beus, you old slave driver,
Better GRADE US CAREFULLY!


Composed and originally performed by
C. P. Webster-Scholten and The Rock Strata Quintet
Geology 626, July 1980