Missoula Floods Presentation

Join the Clackamas County Historical Society at its annual membership meeting. Become a member and enjoy a free presentation entitled “A Bird’s Eye View of the Lake Missoula Floods” by author Rick Thompson, President of the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. About the presentation 15,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods swept across the Northwest, sending a deluge of 500-cubic miles of water, ice, mud, and rock across Montana to the Willamette Valley. Author, photographer, and artist Rick Thompson, takes you on an aerial journey over the topography carved by this Ice Age cataclysm. This presentation will open your eyes to the dramatic and immense scale of these floods. About the author Intrigued by the land formations, huge boulders, and glacial erratics in this area, Thompson embarked on a 25-year study of the floods' effects on the region. Though geology is not his profession, the Lake Missoula Floods have become his passion. He identified and scripted signage for several significant glacial erratics in Washington County. He was twice featured on Grant McOmie’s “Grant’s Getaway” television program. He authored the book GigaFlood – The Largest of the Lake Missoula Floods in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. Illustrated with his own photographs, maps, and diagrams, Thompson shows evidence still visible today from this catastrophic flood. You can visit his website at Gigaflood.com.