Ice Age Floods Explorer

Mammoth Undertaking for Cheney Students

In the early 1990s, second-graders in Mrs. Sara Jane Aebly's class at Windsor Elementary School discovered that Washington State did not have an official state fossil. Encouraged by their teacher,…

Medical Lake Bluff, Diving into the Geology

By Alyssa Fitzgerald

Looking at the beauty of Medical Lake is very relaxing, especially seeing the stoic bluffs or cliffs at the south end of the lake next to Waterfront Park. But have you ever wondered what kind of…

Granite Boulder in the Scablands: Mountain Top or Glacial Erratic?

By Justin Luppens

Due to the ice age floods, when a large granitic rock is found near the Spokane Airport it can be hard to determine if it is an old mountain top surrounded by younger geological features or rafted in…

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Burlingame Canyon Unlocks Missoula Flood Secrets

By Chelsi Howard

Deep in the heart of Lowden’s farming land is a canyon that has uncovered many mysteries around the Missoula Floods. Burlingame Canyon is over 1,500 feet long, and cuts down about 100 feet. Not only is this canyon a visual wonder, it has played a key…

Lyons Ferry Gravel Bar

By Brea Lund

At the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers, the Lyons Ferry area, an immense gravel bar formed from the flow of the monumental Missoula flood waters, as shown in Figure 1 (Bretz et al, 1956; Baker, 1973; Busacca, 1989). The Missoula…

Invasive Knapweed

By Katie Manke

Imagine walking along the countryside in late August and coming across brightly colored purple flowers. Small basal leaves form rosettes while the blooms have thistles that are in full swing July through September. This small flower may look like a…

Stream Piracy on the Palouse River

By Michael Wilson

Looking at the path of the Palouse River today, we might find it hard to imagine the river didn’t always flow down its current path, but instead was diverted some 15,000 years ago by a series of at least 40 catastrophic floods known today as the…

Who Was Harlen Bretz?

By Jessica L. Bell

J Harlen Bretz, whose given name was Harley J. Bretz, was born in 1882 in Michigan. The oldest of five children, Bretz had an early interest in astronomy and the natural environment that surrounded him on the farm where he grew up. Originally…

Hawk Creeks Winding Recession From the Columbia River

By Lana Williamson

Five miles south of the Spokane- Columbia River confluence is a little inlet known as Hawk Creek; a place where people come to spend time doing everything from kayaking to hiking to bird watching. While basking in the sun and fun, it’s interesting to…

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Ice Age Floods Explorer

Ice Age Floods Explorer is a web and mobile platform for telling stories of the Missoula Floods and is an ongoing endevour focusing on student research. Ice Age Floods Explorer is a project of the Public History program and Department of Geology at Eastern Washington University. Most of the stories were created by EWU students. Co-editors are Drs. Chad Pritchard, Larry Cebula, and Paul Lindholdt from Eastern Washington University. Dr. Chad Pritchard is an Assistant Professor in the Geology Department. Dr. Larry Cebula is Editor of Spokane Historical. He is a Professor of History at Eastern Washington University and the Assistant Digital Archivist for the State of Washington. Dr. Paul Lindholdt is a Professor or English. Assistant Edit... Read more About Us