FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 7, 2022
Tualatin Ice Age Foundation
PO Box 711
Tualatin OR 97062
burnss@pdx.edu or jthompson@tualatin.gov
Tualatin Highlights Ice Age History
Tualatin, OR: Tualatin has an Ice Age story, and a new nonprofit is helping to shed light on that history.
The Tualatin Ice Age Foundation has created a short documentary film to tell the local story of the Ice Age floods that scoured the Pacific Northwest landscape thousands of years ago. The film highlights the impacts of those floods throughout the region, as well as focusing on the large animals and native peoples living during that time.
A reception will be held at 5pm on Thursday, June 9, at the Tualatin Public Library with showings of Tualatin: Crossroads of the Ice Age Floods at 6 and 7pm. The event will also include a ribbon-cutting to dedicate the Tualatin Public Library as a visitor center for the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. A second reception will be held on Saturday, June 11, at 3pm, with showings of the film at 4 and 5pm.
From 15,000-18,000 years ago during the end of the last Ice Age, a massive ice dam formed in northern Idaho and Montana. Over hundreds of years, this ice dam periodically burst and reformed, releasing flood waters that rushed across Washington and Oregon to the Pacific Ocean. On their way, the floods carved out land features including the Columbia River Gorge and the coulees and scablands of Eastern Washington.
“Tualatin is the crossroads of the Ice Age Floods,” said Scott Burns, professor emeritus of Geology at Portland State University and president of the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation. “Our landscape was affected by the waters coming in to pool in the Willamette Valley, then again as the flood waters receded. You can find several examples of the impacts of these floods around Tualatin.”
Congress established the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail in 2009, to commemorate the dramatic history of the Ice Age floods that forever changed the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, there will be dozens of visitors’ centers along this geologic trail, raising awareness of the story behind this unique landscape.
Tualatin is one of the first acknowledged stops along the trail, with the Tualatin Public Library serving as a temporary visitor center. Visitors can receive an Ice Age Trail stamp for the National Parks Service passport there.
“Our dream is to build the Willamette Valley Ice Age Interpretive Center in Tualatin, a museum dedicated to telling Tualatin’s Ice Age story,” Burns said. “Until then, explorers along the trail can learn about our local story through the Tualatin Library.”
Tualatin Public Library is located at 18878 SW Martinazzi Ave. The events on Thursday and Saturday are free and open to the public. More information about the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation and its efforts can be found at tualatiniceage.org.