Name: POSTPONED Until August 2027: Bretz Was Right: A Pre‑Birthday Floods‑Fest
Start: 2027-08-28T10:00:00-07:00
End: 2027-08-28T14:00:00-07:00

September 2026
Lake Lewis Chapter Lecture: Lake Lewis with George Last

September 1 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PDT

The Reach Museum 1943 Columbia Park Trl , WA, Richland, WA, United States

The Lake Lewis Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute will host a chapter meeting and guest lecture with George Last on September 1st, 2026. This presentation will continue the 2026 lecture theme as we explore flood stories along the path from ancient Lake Missoula to the Pacific Ocean. This lecture will feature discussions on our own local feature - Lake Lewis! George Last will discuss the importance of Lake Lewis to our understanding of the Ice Age Floods that repeatedly inundated the Tri-City area. He will examine some of the early geologic studies, Lake Lewis’s pivotal role in the debate over these cataclysmic floods, and some of the latest data from the Tri-City area. This event will be hosted at the REACH Museum in Richland, Washington and is free to the public. No registration required. This event will also be broadcast live. Instructions for joining the Zoom meeting are provided below. Chapter Meeting: 6:30 - 7:00 PM (PST) Guest Lecture w/ George Last: 7:00 - 8:00 PM (PST) IAFI Lake Lewis is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83661698442?pwd=RRRuYBesmkahOmauwKwSTpJKWPtFlq.1 Meeting ID: 836 6169 8442 Passcode: 284528 Questions may be emailed to lakelewis@iafi.org

Free
Landforms of the Channeled Scablands

September 17 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT

Connell Library 118 N. Columbia, Connell, Washington

Take a tour of the channeled scablands identifying the diversity of landforms in our area answering the question— ‘Where do we find them and how did they form?” The viewer will leave with a greater appreciation of our unique geomorphology and be able to identify the landforms as they travel through the scablands.
The Bretz Field Notes – New Discoveries and Insights

September 23 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm PDT

Whitman County Library 102 South Main St., Colfax, WA, United States

Glenn Cruickshank, Vice President of the Cheney-Spokane Chapter will give this interesting presentation. Glenn and CWU professor Nick Zentner read over 1,000 field notes of J Harlen Bretz. With these notes, they geolocated over 1,660 sites. This gives us an understanding of the sites Bretz visited and his thought process of interpreting what he saw in the scablands of eastern Washington and Oregon.
Cancelled – Lake Cle Elum Field Trip, Saturday, 26 September 2026

September 26 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm PDT

Cle Elum Lake 47° 15' 10.0800" N 121° 3' 47.3400" W, Cle Elum, WA, United States

Given the Three Queens, King, and Goat fires in the upper Cle Elum drainage, we are cancelling our September 26 field trip to that area. The end of those fires is not in sight, and we can't even get up into the area to preview a trip. So...lets look to 2027 and we will try to figure out a way to dodge fires, likely by offering our field trips earlier in the year—e.g., April, May, June and July. Mike Horner, Tom Ring, and Karl Lillquist had planned to lead a field trip to the Lake Cle Elum on Saturday 26 September 2026. Plan on ~10am-4pm. They are still working out the details of the trip but it will likely include discussion of: 1) glaciation’s role in shaping the Cle Elum River Valley; 2) Cle Elum River flows pre- and post-dam construction; 3) restoration of the Cle Elum River floodplain; 4) impacts of raising pool level on Lake Cle Elum shorelines; and 5) improving fish passage at Cle Elum Dam. This trip will especially tap into the expertise of Tom who has years of experience working on water issues in the Yakima River Basin (including Lake Cle Elum) and Mike whose M.S. thesis focused on potential shoreline issues associated with a higher Lake Cle Elum. They will provide more details as they solidify the plan. Hope you can join us!
November 2026
The Missoula Floods and Other Geological Happenings in the Columbia River Gorge

November 3 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST

The Reach Museum 1943 Columbia Park Trl , WA, Richland, WA, United States

The Lake Lewis Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute will host a chapter meeting and guest lecture with Jim O’Connor, U.S. Geological Survey - Portland, Oregon on November 3rd, 2026. This presentation will round out the 2026 lecture theme as we explore flood stories along the path from ancient Lake Missoula to the Pacific Ocean. Starting with J Harlen Bretz and Ira Williams in 1915, geologists have been on the trail of the Missoula floods in the Columbia River Gorge. This work continues, addressing lingering and new questions, such as how many, how big, when, from where, and what did they do? Jim will summarize the current state of understanding, as well as other Columbia River Gorge stories being worked on by the USGS mapping group. This event will be hosted at the REACH Museum in Richland, Washington and is free to the public. No registration required. This event will also be broadcast live. This event will be updated with instructions for joining online. Chapter Meeting: 6:30 – 7:00 PM (PST) Guest Lecture w/ Jim O'Connor: 7:00 – 8:00 PM (PST) Questions may be emailed to lakelewis@iafi.org

Free
August 2027
POSTPONED Until August 2027: Bretz Was Right: A Pre‑Birthday Floods‑Fest

August 28, 2027 @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm PDT

Update on 5/21/26: Sorry, but due to a heavy summer schedule we've had to postpone this event until next year to give us more time to plan. Our Cheney-Spokane chapter is planning a special late‑summer gathering on Saturday, August 28, 2027 in honor of J Harlen Bretz, whose birthday falls just a few days later (September 2). Bretz’s groundbreaking work on the Ice Age floods reshaped the scientific understanding of the Northwest—and we think that deserves a celebration. We’re still shaping the details, but expect a relaxed, community‑friendly event that highlights the Bretz legacy and the remarkable landscapes he helped the world understand. More information will be posted as plans develop. He mapped the scablands bold and bright, Said “Floods did this!” with all his might. For thirty years they told him “No”… ’Til evidence began to flow. So join us as we celebrate The man who made the floods make sense — A pre‑birthday bash for J Harlen Bretz, Who proved the skeptics wrong (immense!).

September 2026

Lake Lewis Chapter Lecture: Lake Lewis with George Last

Landforms of the Channeled Scablands

The Bretz Field Notes – New Discoveries and Insights

Cancelled – Lake Cle Elum Field Trip, Saturday, 26 September 2026

November 2026

The Missoula Floods and Other Geological Happenings in the Columbia River Gorge

August 2027

POSTPONED Until August 2027: Bretz Was Right: A Pre‑Birthday Floods‑Fest

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