Ellen Morris Bishop [ice age floods]

On Wednesday evening, May 16, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the Museum of the Oregon Territory in Oregon City, I heard the author, Ellen Morris Bishop, the accomplished geologist and photographer, explain the Ice Age Floods (there were several) through geologic time with a global climate change perspective. She is the author of “In Search of Ancient Oregon”, “Hiking Oregon’s Geology”, and “Best Hikes with Dogs: Oregon”. The event was sponsored by the Lower Columbia Floods Chapter (LCFC) of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) and the Clackamas Heritage Partners (CHP).

Besides the Missoula Floods of 18,000 to 13,000 years ago, she talked about the other great floods: the Bonneville about 18,500-15,000 years ago that went through Hells Canyon and along the Snake River; Altay Mountains, Siberian which may have been the Earth’s greatest floods; the Three Glaciers Flood—along the Arkansas River, Chaffee County, Colorado of 20,000 years ago; North Simpson Desert in Australia; and Glacial Lake Agassiz Floods (Hudsons Bay) of 8,200 years ago.

Waiting for the Locomotives

On Saturday, May 12, 2007, I stood at the south end of the asphalt just behind the "No Trespassing" sign and waited from 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM at the Vancouver Train Station in Vancouver, Washington for two of the country's most famous steam locomotives to arrive on their way to Tacoma for excursions to Everett and back to Tacoma. The locomotives were the SP 4449 from Brooklyn Yard in Portland, Oregon and the UP 844 from Cheyenne, Wyoming. The locomotives are both Northern class passenger trains, and each has eight 6-foot-8-inch-high driving wheels. UP 844 was built in 1944 and weighs about 455 tons with tender. SP 4449 -- which pulled the Freedom Train during the Bicentennial -- was built in 1941 and weighs about 435 tons with tender. They linked up near the Columbia River Rail Bridge in Kenton. They were pulling UP SD70M; 18 vintage UP Passenger cars. All that five hour wait for about five minutes viewing but I got some great photos! I put one of the photos on my Railroad Bridge waymark.

“Ages End: Art About the Missoula Ice Age Floods”

On Saturday, May 5, 2007, I drove to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center at The Dalles, Oregon to attend a new exhibition, “Ages End: Art About the Missoula Ice Age Floods” by Stev H. Ominski. He has turned the unfolding tale into visual images of various sites such as the Ice Dam, Dry Falls, Palouse Falls, an Erratic, and other important features. The Artist’s images have appeared in newspaper and magazine articles about the Ice Age Floods, throughout the region. Currently he is producing pieces for Washington State Parks interpretive sites.