Ice Age Floods Museum in Lacrosse, WA
Work has begun on the Ice Age Floods Museum in Lacrosse. The accompanying photo shows that the rock from the existing rock houses has been removed and new foundations have been poured. The rock will then be set back in place and the structures will be similar to the house seen in the back which is the temporary home of the museum today. We will have four of these bunk houses which will be available to travelers. Once these are done, the work will begin on the rock gas station next to these which will be the final home of the museum. “Local businessman Clint Dobson is credited with building the unique collection of structures known as the LaCrosse rock houses and station between 1934 and 1936. The project included three houses, three cabins, and a service station with all buildings prominently featuring basalt stones collected from the surrounding fields. Dobson was not a master stone mason, rather, basalt stone was the most readily available material in the area during the Great Depression. “Local farm hands, workers, and railroad crews used the houses and cabins as rental units, while the station offered a service and repair shop. Although the structures have not been in use since the 1960s, amazingly all but one of the houses remain. Those remaining buildings, however, are in critical danger of collapse if they do not receive repairs to stabilize and secure the stone and structural elements. “Hope for rehabilitation increased when a local family gifted the property to LaCrosse Community Pride, which enjoys a strong track record of successful community development projects in town. Following the closure of the town’s only grocery store, LaCrosse Community Pride embarked on an effort to re-invent that site as an ongoing enterprise and community center. Today, the building houses a new grocery store, the local library, a community meeting space, and two rentable office spaces. The group also organized efforts to return a bank to the town when the local branch closed: they purchased the bank building, secured a new tenant to run the bank, and are currently working to find another tenant for the adjacent café. “The Washington Trust was proud to support LaCrosse Community Pride in rebuilding one of the stone cabins through a Valerie Sivinski Fund grant. Now they are fundraising for the rehabilitation of the remaining buildings and just last month were recommended to receive a state Heritage Capital Grant to realize their vision of creating a heritage museum and Ice Age floods center in the service station along with places for visitors to stay in the homes and bunkhouses.” From Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
Puget Lobe Chapter Lectures On-line
The Puget Lobe Chapter will post recordings of our presentations on YouTube. There are members of the Chapter who can’t make a presentation, but who would like to view our lectures after the fact.. Others may want to review portions of the presentation to answer questions. To accommodate our members, many of our presentations are recorded. The library of past Puget Lobe IAFI lectures is hosted on our YouTube channel, which can be accessed through the Puget Lobe IAFI YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdIqmi3j3uwX2GKvXM1a_2g
IAFI Board Sets New Strategic Plan
Since June the IAFI Board of Directors have been working to revise and update the IAFI Strategic Business Plan that was created in 2006. A lot of that plan has been achieved since then, while some parts are still actively being addressed and other parts are no longer relevant. The newly revised plan that was officially adopted in our October 10 board meeting lays out goals, strategies and action plans for the next two years that address Membership Services, Trail Advocacy, Education and Outreach, Organization Leadership, Administration and Finance. Five committee teams (Education and Outreach, Technical Committee, Membership Services, Trail Advocacy, Administration and Finance) were charged with identifying specific goals, strategies and action plans, and “champions” were assigned to push the action plans forward and to report progress at our regular board meetings. The full 28-page 2020 Ice Age Floods Institute Strategic Plan is available online and we anticipate reporting regularly on our progress as we work to continue the IAFI Vision to be “the foremost provider of Ice Age floods scientific advice and marketing communications through member, partner and direct public collaborations“, and Mission to be “dedicated to promoting public awareness and education relating to the significance of the Ice Age floods“
Chapters Go Virtual for Meetings and Presentations
Covid-19 has sure put a stop to in-person meetings and presentations, but that’s no reason why chapter meetings and presentations can’t still reach out and be available to IAFI members. In fact, several IAFI chapters have been able to increase their outreach and attendance through the use of online ‘virtual’ meetings and presentations. And as an added bonus, the presentations can be easily recorded and made available online to those who weren’t able to attend the live online event. The Lower Columbia chapter has led the way with 4 monthly meeting presentations that have been recorded and later made available on their local GigaFlood website. These include Antarctic Glaciers by Dr. Scott Burns, The Lake Missoula Floods in NW Oregon and SW Washington by Rick Thompson, Global MegaFlood Science by Dr. Victor Baker, and 10 Ways the Lake Missoula Floods Still Affect Us Today by Rick Thompson. Of course Nick Zentner of the Ellensburg Chapter has long been producing and posting videos of his public lectures and his 2-Minute Geology and Nick on the Rocks series, as well as a large library of Covid-era explorations of local geology. The Cheney-Palouse Chapter and the Lake Lewis Chapter have also held their own online virtual meetings and presentations including a recent presentation of Ice Age Floodscapes of the Pacific NW by Bruce Bjornstad for the Lake Lewis Chapter. We hope that other chapters can soon follow suit and that recordings of these and other future events can be made available to our larger IAFI membership.
Spokane’s New Ice Age Floods Themed Riverfront Park
Spokane Parks and Rec is building a new Ice Age Floods themed feature in their Riverfront Park. This video gives an exciting overview of what they’re building. Kudos to Spokane for recognizing and integrating the Ice Age Floods that sculpted much of what the city is build upon.
‘Nick From Home’ Returns this Fall
CWU’s Nick Zentner announces the return of his ‘Nick From Home’ livestreams from Ellensburg, Washington, USA. He will be livestreaming every Wednesday evening at 6:00 PM (PDT) and Sunday morning at 9:00 AM (PDT) from his backyard beginning Wednesday, Sept. 9. The focus will be more centered on exotic terranes of the PacNW in contrast to his Spring series which were all over the place. Watch the announcement on YouTube. Get plugged in to Nick again, and get a tour of his garden.
LaCrosse Heritage Museum and Ice Age Visitor Center Moving Forward!
With strong community support, in-kind pledges from local volunteers and businesses, recently awarded grants from the Port of Whitman and Whitman County, and a major state grant request in the hopper, the historic rock houses of LaCrosse are soon to get a major face-lift. Three years ago, LaCrosse Community Pride leaders and local businesses renovated one of the crumbling old rock bunkhouses, built during the Great Depression of boulders left behind by glacial floodwaters. That project showed the historic rock buildings could be saved and provided temporary quarters for displays of the Ice Age Floods Institute and the Whitman County Library, partners in the project. Next up? The old rock service station will be transformed into a Heritage Museum and Ice Age Visitor Center. The bunkhouses, two more of which will be renovated, will provide more room for exhibits, a business incubator and overnight lodging. Lloyd Stoess and the Palouse Falls chapter will share our remarkable geologic history. The National Park Service and its National Natural Landscape program leaders have been interested in helping, too. We’re planning to break ground on the project this fall. The LaCrosse Community Pride team thanks Lloyd Stoess and all of you, for steadfast support of this ambitious endeavor. This is a two-year project that will require many hands to complete. If you are interested in learning more or seeing how you can help, please contact Peggy Bryan (pegandpetebryan@yahoo.com) or Alex McGregor (alex@mcgregor.com). Submitted by Leslie Druffel UPDATE: On the state Heritage Capital projects, Alex McGregor reports that we ranked 12th out of 40 applicants and received all positive comments from the judges and that no other project prompted this kind of excitement and curiosity.
4th Badger Mtn Interpretive Sign Installed
Friends of Badger have completed installing the 4th interpretive sign about Lake Lewis Isles on Candy Mountain – one more to go, plus three more for Badger Mountain. Lake Lewis was a temporary lake that repeatedly formed during the Pleistocene Epoch as Ice Age flood waters (mostly from Glacial Lake Missoula) backed up behind a constriction at Wallula Gap. The Lake Lewis Isles name is given to several basalt hills south and west of Richland, Washington, whose crests stuck up above the maximum flood level (1,200 -1250 feet) of temporary Lake Lewis, making them islands. These temporary islands include Badger Mountain, Candy Mountain, Goose Hill, and Red Mountain. Only the top 380 feet of Badger Mountain poked out above Lake Lewis. Icebergs and other floating debris (such as mammoth carcasses) drifted into quieter waters and ran aground along the shorelines of these islands, leaving behind giant boulders of exotic rock types (erratics) from up to several hundred miles away. The scene of Lake Lewis, with its temporary Isles protruding out of the lake and occasional icebergs carrying erratics, can probably be best be imagined from one of the Badger Mountain or Candy Mountain trails, or along Interstate Highway I-182 as it passes through Goose Gap approximately 3 miles southwest of Richland. We encourage you to explore the trails and imagine the vistas of recurring temporary Lake Lewis. Our interpretive signs will help you peek into the distant past and the incredible Ice Age Floods story.
‘Great American Outdoors Act’ Signed into Law
Today, the Great American Outdoors Act was signed into law. This landmark legislation protects our cherished public lands for the long haul by securing full permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and investing billions of dollars to fund long-overdue maintenance projects on public lands across the country. The Great American Outdoors Act secures full LWCF funding. This $900 million per year is not from taxpayers, but rather from offshore oil and gas royalties. Corporate entities that have benefited from the wealth of our lands will now bear the cost of preserving them. The Great American Outdoors Act is a boon for the economy as well as the environment. Outdoor recreation in the U.S. is an $887 billion industry that supports millions of jobs throughout the country, including 200,000 in Washington state. By funding billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance projects, this legislation will bring an estimated $250 million to Washington State in the next five years alone. Thanks to the Great American Outdoors Act, we will have the resources to maintain and conserve places like Mount Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park for years to come — all while supporting a vital sector of the economy and providing local jobs that can’t be outsourced. Excerpted from a Senator Maria Cantwell email
Kennewick Man – Today in History
Kennewick Man is the name generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. Two young men discovered the skull of Kennewick Man when they stepped on something that looks like a large rock. They had stumbled upon a human skull while wading in the shallows along the Columbia River. They gave the skull to police, They called the police. The police brought in the Benton County coroner, Floyd Johnson, who was puzzled by the skull, and he in turn contacted James Chatters, a local archaeologist. Chatters and the coroner returned to the site and, in the dying light of evening a skeleton was found scattered nearby, complete with a stone spear point driven into the hip. They plucked almost an entire skeleton from the mud and sand. It is one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found and anthropologists determined it was at least 9,200 years old. It was the oldest nearly complete skeleton found in North America, but the discovery was more than a thrilling moment for archaeologists. The find kicked off a long-running scientific and cultural controversy.— and it sparked a legal battle that lasted more than two decades. Get more of the story at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/