Home > Resources & Links > Store

CATACLYSMS ON THE COLUMBIA
Book $15.00. 211 pp. Timber Press, 1986, 7th reprint.

By John Eliot Allen and Marjorie Burns with Sam Sargent. This fascinating book tells two separate stories separated by 14,000 years. The first is that of the repeated waves of awesome Ice Age floods---the greatest known to have occurred anywhere in North America---which swept across the face of eastern Washington, down the Columbia Gorge, and up the Willamette and Tualatin valleys, catastrophically changing the face of thousands of square miles of the Pacific Northwest.

The second story is that of J Harlen Bretz, a remarkable geologist who defied the scientific orthodoxy of his day and argues that sudden floods of almost unimaginable force rather than the slow uniform processes of erosion had created the scablands of eastern Washington. Bretz lived to the great age of 98 and in his later years he had the satisfaction of seeing his theories vindicated.

Cataclysms on the Columbia is a gripping account of the extraordinary natural forces that shaped the familiar features of the Northwest. The book concludes with descriptions of the evidence of the floods that can be seen in the landscape from Missoula to the Pacific Ocean. The final chapters provide a great touring guide for the interested traveler. Maps, highway directions, and many photos make it easy for the amateur geologist to rediscover the clues which led J Harlen Bretz to his monumental discovery.

IAFI member review:
This is the best book (Ok, the only book) I have found that has a thorough account of the scientific debate that resulted in the eventual acceptance of the theory of Pleistocene flooding in the Pacific Northwest. Bretz and all of his tribulations are laid out for the reader. It has reasonable graphics and photos, though more recent books may do better in that regard. This is a good layman's guide.
---Ivar Husa

Back to Store Main Page

Order Form (PDF)

Last updated 10/19/2007.   Contact the Sitemaster.