Sharing the Fascinating Ice Age Floods Story Since 1995
When the Ice Age Floods roared into the Portland Basin they deposited gravel bars and scoured around topographic highs like the ‘Boring’ volcanoes (Powell Butte, etc.) and the Portland Hills. As they flowed on toward the ocean they were obstructed downstream at Kalama Narrows, which caused the flood waters to back up in temporary Lake Allison that filled the Willamette Valley up to ~400 feet deep all the way south to Eugene.
In the quieter areas of Lake Allison the sediment-laden waters deposited large volumes of rich Palouse soils that were stripped from upstream areas of central Washington and now support vibrant agriculture throughout the Willamette Valley. But as the muddy waters rushed into and later back out of narrow passages they scoured out depressions that are now filled by peaceful lakes like Lake Oswego.
Many icebergs floating in the flood waters became stranded on the edges of Lake Allison as the flood waters receded, where they melted and deposited exotic ‘erratic’ rocks embedded in them (even a meteorite) that were carried from the ice sheet far to the north.
IAFI’s Lower Columbia Chapter serves the Willamette Valley and lower Columbia River
The Lower Columbia Chapter hosts lectures on the third Thursday of each month except in August and December when we do not meet. Before (and after?) the pandemic, Meetings are held at the Tualatin Heritage Center, 8700 SW Sweek Drive, Tualatin, Oregon 97062, except the September meeting which is held at the Tualatin Library.
Since the pandemic we’ve held the meetings via Zoom. In 2020 we started recording our Zoom lectures and uploading them to the IAFI YouTube channel. If you can’t make it to a lecture, we generally have the video uploaded to YouTube in the next week. We invite you to visit our channel and browse the videos there!
Chapter News – KGW TV in Portland recently carried a story on it’s “Grant’s Getaways” show entitled “Oregon’s Erratic Rocks.” The segment features Rick Thompson of the Lower Columbia chapter and looks at how erratic rocks found in the Willamette Valley are remnants of the Lake Missoula floods. Click here to view the video segment.
Please see the Upcoming Events or the General Events Calendar for a listing of all chapter meetings and events.
President
Charles Hall
Vice President
Gerry Tunstall
Secretary
Jane Walpole
Treasurer
Charles Hall
Technical Expert
Dr.Scott Burns
Lower Columbia Chapter – Ice Age Floods Institute
PO Box 25658, Portland, OR 97298
Email: LowerColumbia@IAFI.org
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Our history begins with the now famous Portlandia Statue which is installed on the Michael Graves designed Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Portlandia Statue, created by Raymond J. Kaskey in the “Hammered Copper Repouse on Armature” technique is 1/3 scale the 150’ Statue of Liberty, making Portlandia second in size to the Statue of Liberty which was also created in this medium. Charles Hall volunteered to prepare the installation plan for the funds and resource raising for Portlandia to bring it from Baltimore, MD to Portland, OR. This major effort on behalf of Mr. Kaskey & City of Portland was known by Mark Buser. It occurred in Oct. 1985.
Mark, then President of the West Linn Chamber of Commerce, hired Charles to do consulting for him on strategic planning in his position. In the course of our conversation he mentioned the Ice Age Floods Institute in connection with the Willamette Meteorite the meteorite is thought to have arrived on an iceberg in the Ice Age Floods and was beached on a bar 400’ above the floor of the flooded Willamette Valley in what became known as temporary Lake Allison. The actual Willamette Meteorite was donated to the American Museum of Natural History by the NYC Dodge family at the end of the Lewis & Clark Exposition in Portland where it was on display. The Grande Ronde Indian tribe has ownership over it, should it ever be moved again. They visit yearly.
Mark explained the Ice Age Institute had chapters in Washington, Montana and Idaho, but none in Oregon west of the Cascades. So Charles suggested forming a chapter in West Linn serving the Portland Metropolitan area. Mark became the first LCC President, Charles the Treasurer, Rick Thompson the Vice President and Sylvia Thompson the Secretary. We opened accounts at the new local bank in West Linn on 2/17/2005, that being the Lower Columbia Floods Chapter founding date.
We met monthly at the West Linn Library. The focus at first was on the Willamette Meteorite for which detailed models in several sizes were made and marketed by Mark to raise funds for the 20% size casting at West Linn’s Fields Bridge Park on the banks of the Tualatin River.
Lower Columbia Floods Chapter next moved to the Oregon Territory Museum Conference Center overlooking Willamette Falls, where stayed until around 2011 and renamed as the Lower Columbia Chapter LCC).
Our next move was to Tualatin Heritage Center with the help of Yvonne Addington and Larry McClure, then THC Manager who also arranged speakers for THC in about a 50/50 ratio. Yvonne Saarinen Addington has been very instrumental working with the Thompsons in securing the ice age floods boulder erratics labeled and displayed on the grounds of the Tualatin Heritage Center. This important work continues as more unique erratics are found.
We continued our meetings at the Tualatin Heritage Center, now focused on providing Ice Age Floods speakers for their existing third Thursday evening programs. The Board had remained the original line-up until that move, when Mark resigned and Rick Thompson became President; Jane Walpole Vice President; Sylvia Thompson Secretary and Charles Hall as Treasurer. In September 2022, the Thompsons announced moving to Georgia and Charles became President as well as Treasurer, Jane Walpole remained Vice President and Secretary.
In configuring the new LCC board, we created the position of Member-at-Large and named Dr. Scott Burns, William Burgel, Yvonne Addington and Gerry Tunstall to that position. Gerry requested operational duties and became Vice President when Jane Walpole resigned her long Vice Presidency. Jane continues as Secretary and Charles continues as Treasurer together with the duties of President.
Charles Hall 8/2024 File: History LCC/IAFI
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