Marvelous Flood

“Rain started on Christmas day, 1861, and continued for 40 days. The Virgin [River] became a raging torrent, and at least twice, great floods washed out the dams, filled the ditches, undermined banks, overflowed the plains and despoiled valuable farmlands. On January 8, the flood inundated the village of Grafton, the water rising suddenly during the night. As the waters swirled around the wagon box home of Nathan Tenney, several men picked it up with his expectant wife in it and carried it to higher ground north of the river, where a son was born. He was named, appropriately enough, Marvelous Flood Tenney.”

—A History of Southern Utah and its National Parks by Angus M. Woodbury

Save the baby in the wagon box
Before the river breaks through the rocks
It’s a marvelous flood, it’s a marvelous flood

The little baby’s just being born
The mother’s cord, just being torn
By the marvelous flood, by the marvelous flood

Born in the storm of a grateful day
Born in the restless water’s way
Is it a marvelous flood? Yes, it’s a marvelous flood

     Oh, the Virgin River
     Strips away our soil, our blood
     So we must plant constantly
     In the marvelous flood

See the baby in the wagon box
A team of horses dragged him across
The marvelous flood, the marvelous flood

The river’s washed our baby clean
Soul is pure and he’s pink as a bean
He’s a marvelous flood, ain’t he a marvelous flood?

Baby, baby swimming down the river
You’ve only got four years to live
In the marvelous flood, in the marvelous flood

Now the baby’s in the river’s flow
The muddy waters paint his soul
He’s in a marvelous flood, a marvelous flood

     Oh, the Virgin River
     Flows away our soil, our blood
     So we must plant constantly
     In the marvelous flood

See the baby in the wagon box
See the river crash through the rocks (x2)

Save the baby in the wagon box