THE Pleistocene POST
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The Fall 2016 Pleistocene Post Newsletter of the Ice Age Floods Institute Officers Gary Ford Where is this Floods’ Site and (President) [email protected] Why is it Important? Gary Kleinknecht Each newsletter has a mystery photograph of an important Ice Age Floods site. See (Vice-President) [email protected] if you can determine where it is and why it is an important part of the Floods story. Melanie Bell We hope you have some fun with this. (Secretary) [email protected] Here are 2 photos of the same feature for this issue (courtesy of George Last and Monte Nail Bruce Bjornstad). See if you can find other photos of this feature in this newsletter. (Treasurer) [email protected] It is one of the most prominent features along the paths of the Floods. The answer Board of Directors can be found on page 7. Melanie Bell Roy Breckenridge Gene Kiver Ken Lacy Counsuelo Larrabee Norm Smyers Chapter Presidents Tony Lewis (Coeur du Déluge) Rick Thompson (Lower Columbia) Brent Cunderla (Wenatchee Erratics) Gary Ford (Cheney-Spokane) Lloyd DeKay (Columbia River Gorge) Gary Kleinknecht (Lake Lewis) John Moody (Lower Grand Coulee) Jim Shelden (Glacial Lake Missoula) Nick Zentner (Ellensburg) Dale Middleton (Puget Lobe) Lloyd Stoess (Palouse Falls) IAFI Program Managers Membership Manager IAFI Store Newsletter Website Sylvia Thompson Patty Hurd Signe White & Gary Ford Lloyd DeKay [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 2 President’s Message Greetings Students of the Floods! A Message from the National Park Service Here is your Summer 2016 issue of the Pleistocene - Dan Foster, the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Post. We hope you enjoy reading it. Trail Superintendent, discusses the recently completed long-range interpretative plan. September 24, 2016 Institute Field Trip in western Montana - This year’s fall IAFI field trip Institute Activities - Our eleven chapters offer is sponsored by the Glacial Lake Missoula Chapter. a wide variety of member oriented activities. We The two buses for the field trip are now full so no hope you enjoy reading about some of their recent more registrations are being taken. September 23rd interesting activities. Consult the IAFI website will be the fall Board of Directors meeting at the periodically to find out about upcoming events Missoula Holiday Inn Downtown from 8:30am– offered by our chapters. 4:00pm. An evening membership meeting and pre- field trip lecture will be at the Holiday Inn at 7 pm. Thank you to IAFI Supporters – We thank all of you for continuing your memberships and for the Passing of Roy Breckenridge – It is with donations you make to the Institute. We couldn’t do sadness that we report the passing of Board member any of this without you! Roy Breckenridge. Roy was the retired Idaho State Geologist and spent much of his career studying the All Tasks Great and Small – All of the work Floods and supporting the Trail. In this newsletter, that is done by our chapters is done by volunteers. several of his colleagues share some of their We are always looking for new volunteers to help remembrances of Roy. with both small tasks and large events. If you have some time and interest we would be pleased to have What is new with the IAFI Store? – Some your help. Please see any of your chapter officers exciting things are happening with the IAFI Store. or board members to learn about local volunteer See the article by Store Manager Patty Hurd for opportunities. more details. Meet Signe White - Signe is our volunteer New Website - I am pleased to announce that newsletter editor. We thought you might enjoy we have pretty much a new website. Lloyd DeKay, learning more about her so check out the short President of the Columbia Gorge Chapter and an article on page 16. accomplished webmaster, has helped us develop a much improved website. See the article by Lloyd -- Gary Ford in this newsletter that describes some of the new IAFI President features. Another view of the mystery feature Photo by Bruce Bjonstad 3 In Rememberence Roy Breckenridge REMEMBRANCES BY SEVERAL OF HIS On August 1 the COLLEAGUES IAFI lost one of its pioneers when Roy Thoughts from Tony Lewis Breckenridge died. Roy Breckenridge has been the cornerstone of the Roy was the retired Coeur du Déluge Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Idaho State Geologist Institute since its inception in 2005. For the eight and a long-time years that I have been a member of the CDD Chapter, researcher/teacher Roy was either the sole or co-leader of every one of of the Floods. He was our Ice Age Floods field trips in North Idaho. His also one of the early knowledge of the regional geology and of the Ice people who recognized Age Floods and their impact on the landscapes of the need for an Ice North Idaho was without equal. In addition, this Age Floods National depth and breadth of knowledge was enhanced by Geologic Trail. Listed below are some comments the extensive time he spent doing field work and from some of his IAFI colleagues. focused research in the area. He loved his work and was modest about the extent of his geologic knowledge. However, what really made Roy such a ROY BRECKENRIDGE: A SKETCH OF HIS treasure to our chapter, and all those he interacted ACADEMIC CAREER with was his ability to impart his knowledge without a trace of arrogance. Roy was a teacher without Roy M. Breckenridge studied and mapped the an ego. He would answer any question no matter Quaternary geology of Idaho throughout his long how basic, or even foolish, with clarity and charity. career with the Idaho Geological Survey, where The questioner was always treated with respect he retired in 2014 as Idaho State Geologist and and made to feel that the question was important. Director. Roy received a B.S. in geology from I know this from personal experience. He was a Washington State University and his M.S. and PhD critical thinker but not critical of others. in geology from the University of Wyoming. Before joining the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology Roy was easy to get along with and comfortable to (now Idaho Geological Survey), he worked for the be around. We always had a good time together, Wyoming Geological Survey from 1974-1977 gaining just not as many as I would have liked. I thoroughly experience in surficial geologic mapping, remote enjoyed and will sorely miss our conversations sensing, thermal springs, and geologic hazards. about geology and landscapes, academics, life and Roy enjoyed all disciplines of geology working in a plethora of other topics we seemed to wind up many different settings during his career, but had talking about. a particular interest in glacial geology, publishing maps of northern Idaho and the Long Valley area Thoughts from Norm Smyers near McCall. Roy was a contributor to the first My earliest memories of Roy Breckenridge take National Park Service Ice Age Floods Study and me back to the early days of the Ice Age Floods has been involved with the Ice Age Floods Institute Institute; this would have been in mid-1993 to early since it was formed in 1995. Passionate about 1994. Sometime after the formal creation of the education of local geology, he led numerous field Institute in 1994, Roy was promoted to Idaho State trips throughout the Pacific Northwest for the Coeur Geologist. du Deluge chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute, Inland Northwest Land Trust, University of Idaho, His position as State Geologist allowed him to and the Geological Society of America. produce and erect several of the Ice Age Floods -- Dean Garwood interpretative signs found along many of northern Idaho’s highway routes. The one that sticks foremost 4 in my mind is found along State Highway 200, filled a gap with a representative who had an also known as the Pend Oreille Scenic Highway, intimate knowledge of the regional geology and between the small communities of Hope and Clark how that geology had been modified in part by late Fork, Idaho. In reading the sign and studying the Pleistocene flood waters. detailed graphics one’s attention is quickly drawn south over the sign and toward Lake Pend Oreille. I believe that Roy, through his quiet and thoughtful The reader quickly learns how glaciers helped nature, was one of those individuals that helped excavate the basin now occupied by the lake and the Institute move forward to what it is today, also how they blocked the Clark Fork River near an affiliation of diverse interests and expertise Cabinet Gorge Dam to create Glacial Lake Missoula. recognized by many governmental and scientific Further reading reveals how repeated ice dam entities as a credible source of information and failures released numerous large-scale floods that assistance in the telling of an accurate story of the raced across central Washington and down the Ice Age Floods and the topographic features that Columbia River drainage to Astoria, Oregon. No initially brought together a diverse collection of better site along the north edge of Lake Pend Oreille individuals that today comprise the membership of provides such a view where the sign’s text stands as the Ice Age Floods Institute. testament to Roy’s efforts in the telling of the Ice Age Floods story. In my opinion it is also a fitting In closing, I would like to add that his presence location where a remembrance to Roy should be in my life and his participation in the Institute’s placed in recognition of the many efforts he took activities will be greatly missed by me and other on to share geologic history with the general public.