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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Three events focus on Ice Age Floods

Giant current ripples  southwest of Fairchild Air Force Base  were produced during the catastrophic Ice Age outburst floods when  the ice dam containing Glacial Lake Missoula failed. (Courtesy Kiver / The Spokesman-Review)
Giant current ripples southwest of Fairchild Air Force Base were produced during the catastrophic Ice Age outburst floods when the ice dam containing Glacial Lake Missoula failed. (Courtesy Kiver / The Spokesman-Review)

WILD LANDS -- Publication of new guidebooks is revving up interest in cataclysmic floods that swept through North Idaho and Eastern Washington some 15,000 years ago.

Read on for details about different upcoming presentations on the Ice Age Floods as well as pre-registration info for May field trips sponsored by the Cheney-Spokane Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute.

The trips are filling up, organizers say.

THURSDAY, April 26, 7 p.m., Auditorium in the JFK Library on the Eastern Washington University, Cheney campus.

Washington’s Channeled Scablands – A Visual Tour” - a free public lecture/presentation by Cheney author, John Soennichsen co-sponsored with the Department of Geology, Eastern Washington University, is based on his latest book. This visual tour of Washington’s five scabland tracts, will provide dramatic photos revealing the aura and grandeur of each scabland region.

 MAY 4, 7-9 p.m., Spokane Community College, Lair Auditorium in Student Service Building #6

 Missoula Floods, Glaciers, and Early People and Explorers in Northeast Washington by Dr. Gene Kiver (Eastern Washington University) and Spokane author/historian Jack Nesbit.

FIELD TRIPS

May 5: 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Spokane to the Pend Oreille Valley bus tour -- This is an all day field excursion by deluxe bus to the Pend Oreille Valley and Kalispell Indian Reservation and is led by Gene Kiver, Jack Nisbet and Bruce Bjornstad. The description is the same as the above Friday lecture. Field trip information, registration form and other information is available at the Ice Age Institute website.

May 12-13

Two Ice Age Flood hikes in the Grand Coulee area:

  •  Steamboat Rock hike, May 12
  • Umatilla Rock hike, May 13. 

 For more information about any of these activities, email lindakl@centurytel.net or call (509) 235-4251.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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