LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Floods: Ice Age Floods
built 613 days ago
Floods, among the many catastrophic events that shaped the modern Northwest, helped shape the unique life history of salmon, as well. Over time, salmon adapted to changes in climate and the physical environment. During the last ice age, Pacific Northwest salmon probably populated rivers as far south as California. Repeated floods altered their habitat, and the warmer climate that followed the retreat of the ice probably caused salmon to abandoned the warmer, more southern rivers and move north again.
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The Ice Age Floods are not presently represented in the National Park System. In addition many Floods features possess a high degree of integrity and are a good example of a collection of resources directly related to the theme.
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This painting gives a hint of the awesome force and volume of the Ice Age Floods. It shows the first rush of a Missoula Flood coming into the lower Columbia River Gorge. The speed of the floods approached 60 mph through the Gorge. Beacon Rock is in the distance, with the viewer standing on Crown Point in the right foreground. At maximum flow, the largest of the floods filled the Gorge, overtopping Crown Point.
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The multiple floods that carved the river’s course between modern-day eastern Washington and the Pacific Ocean occurred between 12,800 and 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. The Cordilleran ice sheet covered the Pacific Northwest at the time, extending as far south as the Puget Sound area, the southern reaches of the Okanagon River and the Columbia River valley in north central Washington, northern Idaho and northwestern Montana. There, in northwestern Montana, an impoundment known as glacial Lake Missoula repeatedly undermined the 2,500-foot-tall ice dam that held it back. The ice dam was on the Clark Fork River east of Lake Pend Oreille and near present-day Missoula.
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Regardless of the future outcome, or designation provided, the study process has heightened public attention and awareness in the Ice Age Floods story and the role of the Floods in shaping this region of the United States. As the story of the Ice Age Floods continues to gain popularity, increasing numbers of people will want to view Floods features and learn more about the story. Representatives from all levels of government and private citizens and organizations have shown support for some kind of coordinated regional effort to help ensure the fascinating story of the Ice Age Floods is told to the American people in a coordinated manner.
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Ice Age Floods