Basalt Flow Water Flow EarthCache
Geocaching HQ Admin: It has now been over 30 days since Geocaching HQ submitted the disabled log below and, unfortunately, the cache owner has not posted an Owner maintenance log and re-enabled this geocache. As a result, we are now archiving this cache page.
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This is an easy spot in which to park. A large parking area is provided by Oregon City for enjoying a view of the falls and to view the monuments.
Welcome to the Oregon City waterfalls, the largest waterfall in the region. The river in front of you is the Willamette River, a northerly flowing river that runs down the Willamette Valley up to Portland, Oregon. If you travel just a bit north of Oregon City you can see where the Clackamas River and Willamette River merge into a much larger and powerful river. The dark rocks that you can see in the waterfall, on the banks of the river and along the cliffs above the lower town are made up of the Columbia River Plateau basalt flow from the late Miocene and early Pliocene times. It was one of the largest basalt flows on the Earth’s surface. The Columbia River Plateau basalt flow covers parts of Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
Look beyond the geology and settle your eyes on how humans have interacted with the geological past! Just looking around it is obvious that industry has devastated the area. Industry has found power in the flow of the river, literally, as well as a port for sending goods to other communities and industry along the river system. Please look around as this is one of the questions you will be answering in order to log this find!
In the summer months much of the water through the waterfall is diverted into a series of locks that bypass the falls. The crest length of the waterfall is over ¼ mile and a width of over 470 feet. The Willamette Locks were the first multi-lift navigational locks in the USA and are now a National Historic Site, even though they are still in use.
This series of falls has effected how the human populations have lived over time. The local Native Americans, the Chinook, called a waterfall ‘tumwata’, which comes from the word for heartbeat or something’s spirit/soul, ‘tumtum’. The local Native Americans could harvest enough salmon from this area that they could trade extra salmon to the local Kalapyan and Molallan people.
When the first Caucasian settlers arrived in the Oregon City area they often struggled with the difficulties in crossing the river. The local rivers caused many deaths among the settlers, thus the waterfall area encouraged many folks to settle in the area rather than tackle the river and falls.
When the settlers arrived they noticed that the area was divided into two main areas: an upper and a lower area. The upper area is in the bluffs that are made up of Columbia Plateau basalt (a lava flow). The lower town was built next to the Willamette River. The Native Americans had a series of trails and paths that connected the upper and lower communities.
In front of you are the waterfalls created by the Columbia Plateau basalt flow from millions of years ago. Many years of erosion have shaped the river through the rocks that you can see on both sides of the waterfall and river. Look behind you, over the road and towards the bluffs. Much of the roadways have been carved through the basalt. The dark stone is dense and can cause many problems for the human population.
In order to log this cache, you must do the following:
A) E-mail the cache owner with the answers to the following questions: (do NOT post the answers in the log cache, it will be deleted if you do this)
a. Look at the falls and find 2 ways that humans have modified the falls to protect the local industry
b. Look at the banks of the river and list 1 way that industry is modifying the river before or after the falls
c. Look at the cliffs next to the road and list at least 1 way that humans have had to modify the carved cliff to protect the community.
B) Post a log on the cache page with the following on it:
a. The TIME of day that you were there
b. The estimated temperature of the day you were there
c. Briefly state if water was flowing over the waterfalls or not- guess at the water height (low, medium, or high water will do)
d. Post a picture of you & the gps at the falls- if no picture, the log will be deleted!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Oevat lbhe pnzren! Gb ivrj gur pyvss whfg ybbx qbja gur ebnq n srj uhaqerq srrg naq frr jung vf orvat qbar gb gur pyvssf.
Treasures
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