If you have been following Professor Nick Zentner (CWU) on YouTube, you may know that one of the treasures he has uncovered with the help of collaborators are the Bretz journals from field research done from 1919 through 1929. After Bretz’s death in 1981, his family donated his papers to the University of Chicago Library and though they were available to the public, access was very limited. Just recently Professor Zentner was able to obtain whole-hearted permission from Bretz’s family to share them more widely. Because of this, scans have been made of the journals and PDF’s are now available on Nick’s website for viewing and downloading.
In November, 2023 Nick began a new series called “Ice Age Floods A to Z.” (The videos are recorded and can be viewed on YouTube.) During session I, Nick invited viewer Glenn Cruickshank (Liberty Lake, WA) to share about how to use Google Earth to view the travels of J Harlen Bretz based on his field journals. Glenn had the idea that he could transfer Bretz journal locations to Google Earth; in doing so he has created files for each of the Bretz’s years in the Northwest! All of Glenn’s work has been linked on Nick Zentner’s website.
Using Google Earth with Glenn’s files, a marker appears on the map for each location that Bretz visited during a particular year and includes a snippet of his notes. The map points are all identified by year and by journal page. Not only can you zoom into the satellite images, but you can also use the ‘Street View’ feature to see various outcrops along roads that still exist today.
Google Earth is a free program and can be used on the web, or as an app you can download for a mobile phone, tablet, or your computer (PC, Mac, or Linux). It is similar to Google Maps, but with many more capabilities. If you are just getting started with it, you may want to check out one of the many beginner tutorials on YouTube.
Glenn has included step by step instructions on how to load the Bretz Files into Google Earth from Nick’s site. Using the journals and Glenn’s Google Earth files, you can follow along with Bretz’s field travels year by year.