Ice Age Floods Explorer

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

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…

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…

Mammoth Undertaking for Cheney Students

By Larry Cebula

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,…

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Kayaker Tyler Bradt Who Paddled over Palouse Falls

By Mariah Kruse

An American whitewater kayaker takes the biggest plunge in an attempt to set a world record. Tyler Bradt was born in Stevensville, Montana. Tyler was kayaking class five rapids at the age of 12, and by 15 he was receiving national recognitions. He…

Mammoth Undertaking for Cheney Students

By Larry Cebula

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, they decided to try to create one. After some…

Was it a Spokane High School Teacher who Solved the Riddle of the Ice Age Floods?

By Chad Pritchard & Larry Cebula

We have learned to think of J Harlen Bretz as the genius who first realized that many of the geologic features of Eastern Washington were carved by catastrophic flooding. However, there is some evidence that Bretz actually got the idea from a high…

The Ghost Town of Elberton

By Jessica Blackwood

Once Elberton was a booming town with a population of 500 people. How did the town go from a population of 500 to not even a town at all with a population of less than 15 (Benoit, 2013)? Elberton is one out of two towns in Washington to dissolve…

Balancing Rock near Omak Lake

By Kirsten Brudevold

Precarious boulders are peculiar naturally occurring geological formations that showcase large rocks resting on another rock. This particular balanced rock rests upon a small slope overlooking Omak Lake on the Colville Indian Reservation in…

The Joso High Bridge

By Josh M Bliesner

Around 1910 when construction began on this massive span, it was still the golden age of railroads. The Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company planned a new track between Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington. This 104-mile line would…

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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