1. geologic background · 2000-09-15 · 1. geologic background i n recent geological history,...

Ice Age Floods Study of Alternatives Background

11public review august 2000

s e c t i o n d

BACKGROUND

1. Geologic Background

In recent geological history, portions of the United States have been the site of severalmassive flooding events caused by the abrupt drainage of glacial lakes. The most

dramatic of these are the Ice Age Floods, which covered parts of Montana, Idaho,Washington, and Oregon. For a better understanding of the Floods, perhaps a goodplace to start is to first look at the geological and climatic changes that led up to thesecataclysmic floods.

Generally accepted scientific evidenceindicates that the earth is around 4.5 to4.6 billion years old. Glaciation can betraced all the way back to the ProterozoicEra, approximately 2.3 billion years ago,when the earth was covered with ice.Near the end of the Proterozoic Era,between 850 and 600 million years ago,rock records indicate another globalglaciation period.

About 200 million years ago the AtlanticOcean began to open up and thecontinents drifted into their currentconfiguration, the dinosaurs became

extinct 65 million years ago, and about20 million years ago, in late CenozoicEra, the Pacific Northwest started to lookmuch as it does today, with itsmountains, valleys, and shorelines.

Ice Ages have occurred sporadicallythroughout the earth’s history, althoughthey represent a relatively small part ofgeologic time. Many of the still visibleeffects of the great ice sheets thatperiodically covered parts of NorthAmerica were produced during the lastIce Age in the Pleistocene Epoch. Theseice sheets left a distinctive record in the

s u m m a r y

This section presents a brief overview of theGlacial Lake Missoula Floods story, two of the

key people involved with discovering the Floodsand the glacial lake from which the Floodsoriginated, and events that led up to the initiationof the Ice Age Floods Alternatives Study.

Today’s travelers to the Northwest are witnesses

to a story that puzzled geologists for years.

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public review august 2000

form of till scraped by the ice and finegrained deposits in lakes, moraines, andscratches and grooves in the bedrock.

From 17 to 13 million years ago, lavaflows emanating from a series of volcanicextrusions spread across the ColumbiaRiver Basin, constructing a broad lavaplatform across northeast Oregon,southeast Washington, and centralIdaho. These extrusions were among thelargest and most spectacular lava flowsof their kind. The Columbia Riverbasalts flooded across the PacificNorthwest consisted of more than42,000 cubic miles of lava. In places, thebasalt is more than two miles thick. In

the Columbia Basin, the lava basalts werecovered with windblown glacial dust andsilt, called loess, that is up to 175 feetthick. The Cascades were formed duringthe later part of these basalt extrusions.

During the Pleistocene Epoch Ice Age,beginning about 2 million years ago,virtually all of southwestern Canada wasrepeatedly glaciated by ice sheets thatalso covered much of Alaska, northernWashington, Idaho, Montana, and therest of northern United States. In NorthAmerica, the most recent glacial event isthe Wisconsin glaciation, which beganabout 130,000 years ago and endedaround 10,000 years ago.

Floods of molten lava poured across western

Idaho, eastern Washington, and Oregon.

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2. Story of the Floods

During the last Ice Age, a finger of the continental ice sheet crept southwardinto the Idaho panhandle, forming a 30-mile-wide ice dam that blocked the

mouth of the Clark Fork River, creating a massive lake 2000 feet deep containing 500cubic miles of water. Glacial Lake Missoula stretched eastward for more than 200miles and contained more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. Whenthe ice dam failed, lake water burst through, shooting out at a rate 10 times thecombined flow of all the rivers of the world.

This towering mass of water and iceliterally shook the ground as itthundered toward the Pacific Ocean,stripping away hundreds of feet of soiland cutting deep canyons—“coulees”—into the underlying bedrock. With floodspeeds approaching 65 miles per hour,the lake would have drained in as littleas 48 hours.

Over time the Cordilleran ice sheetcontinued moving south and blocked theClark Fork River again and again,recreating Glacial Lake Missoula. Overapproximately 2,500 years, the lake, icedam and flooding sequence was repeated

dozens of times, leaving a lasting markon the landscape.

Today we can see that the floodsimpacted the landscape. They carved outmore than 50 cubic miles of earth, piledmountains of gravel 30 stories high,created giant ripple marks the height ofthree-story buildings, and scattered 200-ton boulders from the Rockies to theWillamette Valley. Grand Coulee, DryFalls, Palouse Falls—were all created bythese flood waters, as were the Missoulaand Spokane ground-water resources,numerous wetlands and the fertileWillamette Valley and Quincy Basin.

More than 500 cubic miles of water swept across

eastern Washington at tremendous speeds , carving

the basalt bedrock into huge coulees.

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As the flood waters thundered toward the ocean, they stripped away thick soils, cut deep canyons in the underlying bedrock, and scattered house-sized boulders across

four states.

About 17,300 years ago the ice dam broke, releasing a torrent of water that flowed toward the Pacific Ocean at a rate of 10 times the combined flow of all the rivers of

the world.

During the last Ice Age, a finger of the continental ice sheet crept southward into

the Idaho Panhandle, damming the Clark Fork River and creating Glacial Lake

Missoula. Glacial Lake Missoula, at its maximum, contained more than 500

cubic miles of water and was 2,000 feet deep at the site of the ice dam.



Today, geologists and visitors to the region can see first hand the varied flood features created by the Ice Age Floods.

Unable to pass through a narrow gap near Kalama, Washington, the flood water backed up and flooded the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

More than 16,000 square miles of land was flooded in

this first-of-many Glacial Lake Missoula floods.

Art and photography courtesy OBP (J. Tindall,B. Pettus, J. Sipes) and NPS

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3. J Harlen Bretz—Hypothesis of Catastrophic Floods

In many ways, the story of the Floods is also the story of J Harlen Bretz (1882-1981),who proposed the theory that the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington, and

much of the Northwest as we know it today, were formed by catastrophic flooding.

Bretz became a high-school biologyteacher in Seattle. He had earlierdeveloped a keen interest in the glacialgeology of the Puget Sound and hadstudied the area extensively. This interestin geology led him to the University ofChicago, where he was awarded a Ph.D.in Geology in 1913. Then, Bretz accepteda position as an assistant professor ofgeology at the University of Washingtonand later at the University of Chicago.His thesis was on the glacial history ofthe Puget Sound, and he quickly becamerecognized as an expert in the features ofstream and glacial erosion.

Bretz began his field research in theChanneled Scablands of centralWashington during the summer of 1922,and it quickly became clear to him thatneither glaciation nor ordinary streamerosion explained the Scablands. Thefollowing year Bretz made his twopresentations to the Geological Societyof America on the Scablands. The first

paper provided a detailed physiographicdescription of the Scablands; the secondsuggested that it would have taken amassive volume of water to create thelevel of channel erosion that hadoccurred.

Bretz’s second paper on the Scablandsalso discussed the mounded graveldeposits that were scattered throughoutthe area. He proposed the idea of acatastrophic flood and included the firstdetailed geological map that included allof the Scablands and showed the extentof the floods. Bretz used the name“Spokane Flood” because he assumed thesource of the water for this flood wassomewhere near Spokane, Washington.

Bretz was confident that a flood hadoccurred, but was unable to figure outwhere the water had come from.Originally, he proposed that the waterwas the result of increased runoff frommelting glaciers. But even Bretz had a

J Harlen Bretz (1882–1981)

1949 photo by Dr. Julian Goldsmith

J Harlen Bretz spent more

than four decades defending

his theories on the Spokane

Floods before they were

generally accepted by the

scientific community.

—John Allen and Marjorie Burns,

Cataclysms of the Columbia



tough time imagining any significantvolume of water melting rapidly enoughto have such devastating impacts. Notuntil 1930 did Bretz consider GlacialLake Missoula as the possible source ofwater he was searching for. But thegeologic evidence was elusive, and hedid not fully embrace the idea until1956. Unable to provide a clear,scientific argument for the source of

flood water, Bretz eventually went on toother things.

Bretz lived to the age of 98 and late inlife had the satisfaction of seeing histheories validated. Perhaps it is poeticjustice that in 1979, Bretz, at the age of96, received the Penrose Medal, theGeological Society of America’s (GSA)highest award.

Bretz knew that the very idea

of catastrophic flooding

would threaten and anger

the geological community.

—Andrew Macrae, University of Calgary,

Department of Geology & Geophysics Aerial view of Dry Falls cataract, Grand Coulee, Washington, looking north.

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4. Joseph T. Pardee—Glacial Lake Missoula

Joseph Thomas Pardee (1871–1960) also played a key role in understanding thestory of the Floods. It was Pardee who proposed that the floods Bretz talked about

occurred when the ice dam which had formed Glacial Lake Missoula was breached.

Pardee, a geologist with the U.S.Geological Survey, began studying theScabland region near Spokane,Washington, and the intermountainbasins of Montana in 1910. Pardee foundgeomorphic evidence of a large glaciallake in western Montana; strandlines(high water marks) indicating themaximum height of the lake are clearlyvisible today in the area around the cityof Missoula, Montana.

Pardee spent years collecting, analyzing,and documenting other geomorphicevidence, and eventually the scientificcommunity was convinced that GlacialLake Missoula had indeed existed.

Apparently Bretz and Pardee didcommunicate over the years, and Pardeesuggested that Bretz consider thedraining of Glacial Lake Missoula as apossible source of the Floods. But neitherBretz nor Pardee had the scientificevidence to back up such an idea.

Later, in the late 1930s at Camas Prairiein northwestern Montana, Pardeediscovered a series of ripple marks left onthe lake bottom sediments of GlacialLake Missoula that could only have beenformed by powerful currents that flowedover the bottom, shaping the sedimentsinto smooth, parallel, ridge-rows. Themarks were evidence that the ice damholding back the water had failedsuddenly, and Glacial Lake Missoula haddrained rapidly. The ripple marks wereup to 50 feet high and 500 feet apart.Because the ripples were so large, it wasonly when Pardee was able to view theseunique features from the air that herecognized them as being formed bywater. Once they had been identified andpeople knew what to look for, similarexamples of giant ripple marks werefound throughout the path of the floods.

In addition to the ripple marks, Pardeefound other evidence of the ice damfailure, including severely scoured

In his numerous reports,

Bretz rarely asked about a

water source, and then only

in a brief sentence or two

devoid of analysis.

—Richard Waitt, USGS

“I know where Bretz’s Flood

came from.”

—J. T. Pardee, at a 1927 meeting of the

Geologic Society in Washington DC.

Giant ripple marks can still be seen clearly in

Camas Prairie, Montana.

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constrictions in the lake basin and hugebars of current-transported debris.

Pardee first presented this evidence in1940 at a meeting of the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience in Seattle, Washington. Hisconclusions were later published in the1942 GSA Bulletin paper titled “UnusualCurrents in Glacial Lake Missoula.”Collectively, these papers played a pivotalrole in the scientific community’seventual acceptance of the cataclysmic

flooding hypothesis. His work provided,for the first time, a logical source of waterneeded to support Bretz’s hypothesis. Theripple marks were a key piece of evidencethat eventually helped convince skepticsof the cataclysmic-flood hypothesis.

Even after Pardee’s work was madepublic, acceptance of Bretz’s theories wasslow in coming. It took another 20 to 30years before Bretz’s theory of catastrophicflooding became generally acceptedamong geologists.

Bretz and Pardee were

certainly not the only ones

involved in solving the

mysteries of the Glacial Lake

Missoula Floods. For

example, in 1871, geologist

Thomas Condon proposed

the idea that Oregon’s

Willamette Valley was

flooded sometime during the

Ice Ages.

Wave-cut standlines cut into bedrock of slope at left in photo. These cuts record former high-water

lines, or shorelines of Glacial Lake Missoula near Missoula, Montana. Gullies above the highway are

the result of modern-day erosion.

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5. Scientific Debates—Uniformitarianism vs. Catastrophism

The debate over the origin of the Channeled Scabland region of eastern Washingtonwas one of the great controversies in the history of geology. One reason Bretz

encountered such vehement opposition to his hypothesis of catastrophic flooding wasthat there were no records of such floods in modern-day experience and themagnitude of the floods were at a scale that was difficult to imagine. The biggestdifficulty, however, was that a catastrophic flood at the scale Bretz was describing wasalmost biblical in proportion, and this notion was directly at odds with the idea ofUniformitarianism.

James Hutton, a Scottish geologist, wasthe first to articulate the principle ofUniformitarianism, the accepted modelin geology during the early 1920s whenBretz proposed his idea of catastrophicfloods. According to Hutton, in his 1788book Theory of the Earth, geologicalprocess is steady, slow, repetitious, and“uniform.” In essence,Uniformitarianism says that geologicalprocesses that can be observed in thepresent are likely to be the same as thosethat operated in the past. This model hasserved the geologic community wellbecause, in general, geological changesaveraged over eons do occur slowly.

Among geologists in the 1920s, the onlyacceptable catastrophic events werevolcanoes and earthquakes. Beyondthese events, catastrophism wasconsidered to be “bad science” andvirtually vanished from geologicthinking. Geologists from that eraattributed the creation of the ChanneledScablands to glacial erosion, which wasmuch more in keeping with theories ofUniformitarianism. It is perhapsunderstandable, then, that acceptance ofBretz’s theories of catastrophic floodstook as long as it did.

“They were all loaded for me

and after letting me talk for

two hours they opened fire.”

—Bretz, after a 1927 meeting of the

Geologic Society in Washington DC.

It is usually interpreted as a

contest of ideas between

neocatastrophist Bretz and a

platoon of diehard

gradualists, an image Bretz

himself promoted. . . .




6. Science’s Modern-Day Evidence and Acceptance b

J Harlen Bretz spent more than four decades defending his theories on the Floodsbefore the scientific community generally accepted them. Before this acceptance

would occur, all of the pieces of the puzzle had to come together. And it certainlydidn’t hurt when scientists were finally able to study glacial floods in action.

In the 1960s and 1970s, glacial geologistsbegan to develop a better understandingof how floods in glaciated lands couldoccur by studying jökulhlaups, outburstfloods that occur from the tunneling bywater through a glacier. Although thereason the flooding occurs is verydifferent between jökulhlaups and the IceAge Floods, many of the dynamics are thesame. Most of these studies have occurredin Iceland, which has a uniqueenvironment, because it has active

volcanoes that create hot crustalconditions yet is a glaciated region.Basically, scientists discovered that inIceland subglacial lakes formed when thelower surface of a glacier starts to melt.The water is typically trapped in asubglacial cavity until enough pressurebuilds up and the water escapes out fromunder the glacier, creating a glacial flood.In Iceland, this type of glacial floodingoccurs regularly; the cycle repeats itselfevery 20 years or so.

With the eventual availability

of more evidence, a plausible

mechanism, and evidence for

that specific mechanism, most

geologists quickly accepted

Bretz’s hypothesis. . . .

—Andrew Macrae, University of Calgary,

Department of Geology and Geophysics

Bretz’s scablands “evidence”

was astonishing, and most of

his descriptions remain today

as fresh and accurate as

when written. . . .


Modern tools, such

as satellite imagery,

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7. Increased Public Interest

After the scientific community finally embraced the story of the Floods, research inthe Channeled Scablands and other areas impacted by the Floods increased. The

result of this research was a more thorough understanding of events that led up to theFloods and the impacts that they had on the landscape. This research, which hasresulted in dozens of scientific papers (see the reference list in the appendix), has alsohelped create a greater public awareness of the Ice Age Floods. It is only within the pastdecade or so that the story of the Floods has become widely publicized via magazineand newspaper articles, books, brochures and pamphlets, and television documentaries.

Over the past decade the public hasshown an increasing interest in the IceAge Floods. In 1995, Smithsonianmagazine published a feature article aboutthe floods; several popular books haveincluded Floods material; severalnewspapers have published stories; anumber of videos have been produced;and Oregon Public Broadcasting televiseda half-hour special on the subject.

The more the public learn about the IceAge Floods story, the more fascinatedthey become. After all, this is a story thatseems to belong more to the realm of

science fiction than to reality. The scaleand immensity of the Floods is hard toimagine; standing in central Washingtonit is almost impossible to comprehendeverything visible in all directions wascovered by hundreds of feet of waterduring the height of the Floods.

People are asking that the Floods’ storybe told in an exciting and accessible way.It is evident that what is needed is thedevelopment of a coordinatedinterpretive and educational approach totell the Floods story throughout the four-state area and beyond.

It became evident that what

was needed was the

development of a

coordinated interpretive and

educational approach to tell

the Floods story throughout

Montana, Idaho,

Washington, and Oregon.



8. Formation of Ice Age Floods Task Force—The Early Days

While there has been more than a casual interest in the Ice Age Floods story on thelocal and state levels, very little appreciation for the national significance of the

Flood events has been noted, except from within the scientific and professionalgeologic community. The Ice Age Floods story was published during the 1974 World’sFair in Spokane, Washington, with occasional articles featured in local and regionalnewspapers since that time. In addition, a descriptive and interpretive booklet, “TheChanneled Scablands of Eastern Washington: The Geologic Story of the SpokaneFlood,” was published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The booklet, which is in its thirdedition, is available through the Eastern Washington University Press. To date, morethan 125,000 copies have been printed.

In June of 1987, in response to a requestfrom the National Park Service (NPS)Regional Office to document the status ofthe National Natural Landmark (NNL)sites, NPS representatives from (then)Coulee Dam National Recreation Areaorganized a field trip to those sites withina one-day drive of Coulee Dam,Washington.

Dan Hand, Interpretation Specialist atCoulee Dam (now Lake Roosevelt)National Recreation Area, laid out aroute of travel to include the upper andlower Grand Coulee, Withrow Moraine,Haystack Rocks, a great gravel bar inMoses Coulee and some eskers andkames near Sims Corner. Others making

the trip were Superintendent GaryKuiper, NPS, Craig Sprankle, PublicAffairs Officer of the U.S. Bureau ofReclamation (USBOR), Judy Sprankle,Editor of the Star newspaper in CouleeDam, and Phil Hansen, USBORGeologist.

From this initial field trip, it soonbecame evident that here was a story thatneeded to be told. Other than what theWashington State Parks was featuringwithin their system, there was not asingle interpretive display or roadsideexhibit along the entire length of theupper Grand Coulee or at the other sitesthat were visited. Hansen’s interpretationof the geologic history leading up to the

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series of flood events left the tour groupwanting to know more. And indeed, therewas more to the story than could becovered in one day.

Judy Sprankle’s article about the Floodsin the Star Newspaper had the desiredeffect. Local interest developed andanother tour was organized for the localChamber of Commerce and othersinterested in learningabout the Floods story.

About this time, DanBrown replaced Dan Handas the park interpreter atCoulee NationalRecreation Area. Brownhired an experiencedphotographer to developa quality slide file. Itwould enable NationalPark Service interpretersto present the story of theIce Age Floods to thepublic. Ed Soldo built aslide file with more than3,000 slides, includingaerial shots. His nextseason was dedicated to labeling andorganizing the slides.

Brown also prepared the script for an IceAge Floods slide program that was basedin no small part on the recentlypublished book, Cataclysms on theColumbia by John Allen, Marjorie Burnsand Samuel Sargent, 1985.

While local NPS representatives realizedthat the Floods events were of nationalsignificance, selling the idea to

cooperating agencies and eventually thepublic was an important first step.Officially, the NPS Regional Director wasnotified by memo in August 1987 that, atleast in the opinion of interestedindividuals, the Ice Age Floods eventsmet the criteria for identification asbeing nationally significant. NPSRegional Director Chuck Odegaard was aformer Washington State Parks Director

and was familiar withthe state parkinterpretive program atDry Falls. He gave the goahead to pursue aninitiative to informagencies and the publicof the value of theFloods resources.

Realizing that electedofficials would eventuallyplay an important role,efforts were made towork with countycommissioners andCongressional delegationand inform them of theFloods resources in their

back yards. Moreover, project organizerstook great pains to assure everyone that

During the Ice Age Floods, Dry Falls was under

300 feet of water approaching at a speed of 65

miles per hour.

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the NPS was not interested in acquiringmore land.

Project organizers contacted geologists ateach of the state universities and soonwere networking with counterparts inMontana, Idaho and Washington.

In early 1993, the team of Dan Brownand Gary Kuiper hit the road, showingthe program to more than 70 audiences,including the from Audubon Club,Grange and Chamber groups, Tribalofficials and county commissioners,other federal officials, anyone, for thatmatter, who showed an interest. Each ofthe four states was covered, and longdays and nights were the rule. Inaddition, an article in the SpokesmanReview written by Becky Napi generateda lot of interest.

Kathleen Johnson of the USGS, SpokaneOffice, provided the necessary maps andconnected project organizers withRichard Waitt, USGS, and others in heragency. The BLM Spokane District Officestaff added to the concept by suggestingthat the Floods story be aimed at a widerregional audience. This expanded targetwas critical because the BLM had a

majority of the Floods landscape underits jurisdiction in eastern Washington.Soon there were solid contacts inMontana with USFS geologists NormSmyers and Jim Shelden, and KarenPorter of the Montana Bureau of Minesand Geology. In Idaho, the project hadthe support of Roy Breckenridge of theIdaho Geological Survey. Others lendingsupport were Dale Stradling and GeneKiver of Eastern Washington Universityand Paul Weis, retired USGS, whosepublication on the Scablands of EasternWashington is still a popular item.

These early conversations and meetingsled to a more formal approach, and onFebruary 17, 1993, the first of seven IceAge Task Force meetings was held. Suchitems as an organizational structure,purpose, action plan, strategy paper,inventory of flood features and existinginterpretive waysides were identified.Most importantly, the membership of theTask Force was meant to include theinterested general public and legal entitiessuch as county commissioners, Tribes,Chambers of Commerce, tourism industryand political staffers. Although having allof these groups serving as active membersof the Task Force was not the point, it was

essential that they be kept informed andbe invited to participate in the process.

Gary Kuiper served as the first chair ofthe Task Force and remained in thatposition into 1993–1994. His tenure wasfollowed by Coulee Dam NRASuperintendent Gerry Tays, who waselected by the Task Force to serve aschair. Superintendent Tays served for thenext three and a half years and continuedto promote the merits of a coordinatedinteragency approach.

One of the most influential events incarrying the story of the Floods to awider audience was the production os avideo of the Floods. Initially AnnHerdrick of the Odessa (Washington)Economic Development Committee(OEDC) approached Jim Sipes,Washington State Professor of LandscapeArchitecture, about using the Floodsstory to help increase tourism in theOdessa area. They started work on avideo that would tell the story of theFloods and guide people to significantFloods features, specifically aroundOdessa. Around the same time bothSuperintendent Kuiper and InterpretiveSpecialist Brown realized they could not

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continue indefinitely to take their “roadshow” to every group that requested it.The decision was made to combineforces, and the result was the 13-minutevideo, “The Great Floods: Cataclysms ofthe Ice Age.” (A video called “Floods ofFire and Water” was subsequentlydeveloped for OEDC in June 1994.) Thevideo combined the narrative and somephotos of the slide show with video andcomputer animation sequencesdeveloped by WSU that showed theFloods roaring across the landscape ofnorthwestern Montana, Idaho,

Washington, and Oregon, and finally outto the Pacific Ocean. Three WSUstudents, Bruce Morrow, Mike Spencer,and Andrea Blake, assisted ProfessorSipes in the effort. The product was aninstant success, having been aired onPBS, shown at visitor centers andschools, and receiving several nationalawards.

While the notion of a coordinatedinterpretive approach remained a primarygoal, the Task Force became inactivepending the availability of study funds.



With assistance from some members ofthe Task Force, the Ice Age FloodsInstitute was organized early in 1994.Officers and a board were elected, bylawsand articles of incorporation wereadopted, and the process to qualify as aWashington nonprofit corporation andto be granted 501(c)(3) status with theIRS was initiated. Mikki Kison, aRitzville, Washington, resident served asits first executive director. DaleMiddleton currently serves in that roleand has been instrumental in thedevelopment of this Study ofAlternatives. The first Institutenewsletter was published and sent toindividuals from the Task Force’s mailinglist. Institute members adopted a logo,and Task Force members helped designand produce a brochure that is still beingused. The purpose of the brochure wasboth to promote interest in the Floodsand to recruit members for the Institute.

The Spokane Chamber of Commerceprovided a home base for the Institute inthis formative period.

Over the course of the year (1994), theInstitute became active and visible inpromoting the concept of acomprehensive interpretive program.Presentations were made to tourism andbusiness groups, and statements ofsupport were received from severalChambers of Commerce. One Institutemember in particular, Karen Wagner ofMoses Lake, Washington, Chamber ofCommerce, became a leading advocatefor the Floods initiative. The Instituteand its objectives were featured in anumber of newspaper articles.

As a functioning group, the Task Forcebecame less active, and then went onstandby, intentionally awaiting fundingfor a study. The Institute continued the

9. Formation of the Ice Age Floods Institute

Toward the end of 1993, members of the Task Force discussed the need for a private,nonprofit organization that would complement the interagency Task Force. The

consensus was that the private sector could more readily support and participate in thedevelopment of a coordinated interpretive program. A number of individual citizensand representatives of business groups had already been attending Task Force meetings.

The gorge below Palouse Falls, Washington,

with talus slope.

Park Lake, Sun Lake State Park, within the

lower Gran Coulee.

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effort, relying on interest and supportfrom the private sector. The Institutebenefited from the continuing interestand participation of some agency anduniversity personnel and retired staffwho were members of the Task Force. Inaddition, the BLM Spokane officeprovided meeting space to the Institutefor a number of years.

An important legacy of the Task Forceperiod is the “Great Floods” video,which became available in 1994 and hasbeen selling steadily ever since. Thevideo has proved to be very useful inmaking presentations to a wide varietyof audiences.

In 1995 an important item appeared—Michael Parfit’s excellent article, “TheFloods That Carved the West,” inSmithsonian magazine (April 1995). Thearticle immediately became one of theprime informational pieces about theFloods; the Institute was included in thelist of “additional sources.”

One of the remarkable events in thehistory of the Institute was itscollaboration with NASA, Arizona State

University and the Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL) in the fall of 1995. Inpreparing for the Mars Pathfindermission, NASA, ASU and JPL sent a teamto the Channeled Scablands to examineFloods features that apparently areanalogues to features on the surface ofMars. The Institute helped witharrangements for the visit, and in theexploration of the Scablands. The projectwas very well publicized.

At the time, the publication of theSmithsonian article and the visit by NASAwere encouraging, but overall theInstitute was facing a rather difficultperiod. Substantial commercial supporthad not materialized, and there was littleapparent progress toward the goal of acomprehensive interpretive program.The Institute moved its base ofoperations from Spokane to the RitzvilleChamber of Commerce, then to theOdessa Economic DevelopmentCommittee, and finally to the MosesLake Chamber of Commerce, where itcurrently has its headquarters.

Some individuals who had been involvedin the Task Force and the Institute

dropped out. A small group remained tohold the Institute together and to keepthe idea of a coordinated interpretiveprogram alive, and they succeeded. Noone could know that within about threeyears, a ground swell of media andpublic interest would emerge.

This small, yet growing group ofdedicated individuals persevered forseveral years, sharing their enthusiasmamongst themselves and with others. InOctober 1996 the Institute offered itsfirst field trip, led by a retired USGShydrologist. It included sites in theSpokane and Idaho Panhandle area. Itwas originally hoped that field tripswould be an annual activity, but nonewas offered in 1997.

A new guidebook appeared in 1997: Fire,Faults & Floods: A Road & Travel GuideExploring the Origins of the ColumbiaRiver Basin, by Marge and Ted Mueller(University of Idaho Press). The bookcovers the Columbia River Basalt flows,as well as the Ice Age Floods.

After years of effort, a dramatic turningpoint came in 1998. From the following



events, it is clear that interest in theFloods had reached a remarkable level:

• Grant County Commissioners (WA)voted to assist financially in theoperation of Dry Falls InterpretiveCenter, in order to keep the centeropen seven days a week in thesummer season.

• The governing boards forWashington State Parks and IdahoState Parks passed resolutions ofsupport for the proposed NPS Study.

• KSPS (Spokane) began production ofa one-hour TV show on the Floods,to be shown in the fall of 2000.

• Oregon Public Broadcasting(Portland) aired a new half-hourshow on the Floods.

• Discovery Channel included asegment about the Floods in a two-hour show titled “Amazing Earth.”

A particularly significant event in 1998was the publication of the large map,“Glacial Lake Missoula and the

Channeled Scabland,” by Region 1 of theU.S. Forest Service. The map, whichshows the whole region affected by theIce Age Floods, went on sale late in theyear and quickly became a best seller. ByFebruary 2000 the map had gonethrough three printings and 15,000copies had been sold. As a gauge ofpublic interest in the Floods, thesefigures are hard to ignore.

None of the projects listed above were adirect result of Institute initiatives, butthe Institute was active in encouragingand/or publicizing these projects.

In the Institute’s own program, threedevelopments were noteworthy in 1998:

• The Institute’s website wasestablished and continues to behosted by the Idaho GeologicalSurvey, at the University of Idaho.The site has attracted new membersto the Institute, some from outsidethe region.

• A major field trip was conducted toexplore the Glacial Lake Missoulaarea in Montana, and it received an

enthusiastic response in print andbroadcast media. The tour wasorganized and led by a USFS memberof the Task Force.

• The Institute, largely through itsnewsletter, became established as aneffective source of information aboutFloods activities and resources.

The Institute and the StudyAfter years of effort to have the Floodsformally recognized for theirsignificance, the first procedural “giantstep” came early in 1999, with theannouncement by the National ParkService that funding for the Study ofAlternatives had been secured throughthe appropriations process. The Institutehas taken an active part in the conduct ofthe Study and wholeheartedly supportedits objectives. Participation in the Studywas the most important activity of theInstitute membership in 1999 and 2000,and interest in the Study can be creditedfor a substantial increase in Institutemembership. The prospect ofsuccessfully launching an interpretiveprogram has proven to be very effective

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in generating even greater interest andinvolvement. Institute members havemade presentations on the Floods andthe Study to local groups, and have beenworking with these groups in order toencourage their participation and input.

Institute meetings have been scheduledto be held in conjunction with StudyTeam and Study Zone meetings. For theOctober 1999 Study Team meeting, theInstitute organized a major field trip toimportant sites near Moses Lake (WA).Two members of the Task Force, fromthe USGS and BLM, were tour guides.The field trip was subscribed to capacityand very well received. Other field tripswere organized for Study meetings atother locations in the region using expertguides from the USFS, USGS, Pacific NWNational Laboratory, and IdahoGeological Survey.

At the October 1999 meeting, theInstitute voted to form an expertScientific Advisory Panel because ofconcern about the reliability of Floodsinformation being presented to thepublic. The Panel will review technicalinformation developed for Instituteprojects and materials as well as draftssubmitted by reporters and other writerswho turn to the Institute for advice. ThePanel will also prepare a basic fact sheetabout the Floods, which will serve as aguide for writers and interpreters, andalso as a source of general information.

The Institute was also active during 1999in a number of activities:

• Working with the American AutomobileAssociation (AAA) to include moreinformation about the Floods inforthcoming AAA regional TourBooks.

• Providing referrals to help the Port ofWalla Walla (WA) develop aninterpretive installation at WallulaGap, a major site in the Floods storyas well as in the cultural and overallnatural history of the region.

• Working with charter flight companiesto promote aerial sightseeing servicesover the landscape created by theFloods.

• Beginning discussions with CarTours,an organization that produces cassetteand CD touring guides and is affiliatedwith the Northwest InterpretiveAssociation.

These connections are indications of theinterest of the general community in theFloods story and of the ways the Institutecan bring people together and makeefficient use of resources and talents.



10. Partnerships

From the beginning of interest in the Ice Age Floods in the late 1980s, partnershipshave been an important ingredient. The creation of the Ice Age Floods Task Force

brought federal and state agencies together with tribal governments, academia, andprivate enterprise to examine the potential for creating a structure to interpret the IceAge Floods story.

Throughout this Study, the need forforming partnerships becomes evident.These future partnerships will have to beformalized by written agreementsdefining the roles and responsibilities ofeach partner. These partnerships willhave to cover a broad spectrum and notbe limited to land management agencies.Examples of the broad extent ofpartnerships include:

• Chambers of commerce• Tourism councils and commissions• County governments• State agencies• Tribal governments• Conservation and environmental

groups• Historical societies• Geological societies• City governments• Visitor and convention bureaus

• Tour companies (automobile,aviation, and marine)

• Federal agencies• Colleges and universities• Museums• Publishing companies• Economic development councils• School districts• Energy corporations• Private landowners whose land

contains Floods resources

A start in developing partnerships hasalready begun. There are nine federalagencies, six tribal governments, 17state agencies, and seven colleges anduniversities involved in some degree ofthe early planning. Numerous chambersof commerce and visitor and conventionbureaus are active in support of theconcept. The private sector has beenhelpful and involves representatives

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from the hospitality and tourismindustry to large power companies suchas Avista.

Additional informal partnerships havebeen developed over the past year. TheSeattle (Washington) Public SchoolDistrict is working with the studyconsultant to develop an inquiry-basedearth sciences program using the Ice AgeFloods story. Various computer andvideo techniques will be used to developa teacher’s guide and resource section toaccompany the student version. OregonPublic Broadcasting (OPB) fromPortland, Oregon—the producers of the28-minute video Ice Age Flood:Catastrophic Transformation of the West—and study consultant project managerJim Sipes are working with the SeattlePublic School District to produce an

educational poster using the Ice AgeFloods story to stimulate the students tolearn more about earth science by usingthe Floods story.

Study consultant Jones & Jones has alsoassisted the Northern Rockies HeritageCenter in Missoula, Montana, byproducing computer graphics. On aStudy Group level, Bruce Bjornstead,Study Zone Chair for the Mid-ColumbiaZone has been working closely with theColumbia River Exhibition of HistoryScience and Technology in Richland,Washington.

As more information becomes availableto the public, the public responds byoffering to help, and the network ofpotential partners and partnerships willrapidly grow.



11. Commencement of the Ice Age Floods Alternatives Study

In an effort to develop a coordinated interpretive and educational approach to tellingthe Floods story across four states, the National Park Service funded the Ice Age

Floods Study of Alternatives and Environmental Assessment through their SpecialResource Study Program. There was consensus within the region among publicagencies and private sector partners within the region that such a study was needed.Analyzing Flood features through an inventory system, the study addresses thesuitability and feasibility of federal designation and assistance, as well as variousoptions for forming partnerships and developing cooperative strategies. The Study ofAlternatives will culminate in a Final Report, to be presented to the Secretary of theInterior for transmittal to Congress.

The Ice Age Floods Study

Team consists of members of

the original Ice Age Floods

Task Force, members of the

Ice Age Floods Institute, the

project consultants (Jones &

Jones), and the National Park

Service.

The work of coordinating the study andcompleting its reports was contracted toconsultant Jones & Jones, a Seattle firmnoted for its planning and designexpertise. To assist in the project a StudyTeam, which served as a steeringcommittee, was formed. The Study Teamconsists of members of the original IceAge Floods Task Force, members of theIce Age Floods Institute, the project

consultants (Jones & Jones), and theNational Park Service.

The study process relied heavily on apartnership between public and privateparticipants. Across the Floods regionmany local workshops were held toanswer questions and invite theparticipation of residents throughout theregion.

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1. geologic background · 2000-09-15 · 1. geologic background i n recent geological history,...

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