The Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce knew the area for its great
fishing. The name “Wallowa” is the name of the tripod
used to support their fishnets. The lake is 5-6 miles in length, a
mile wide and about 283 feet in depth. Local activities include:
Camping, backpacking, fishing, hiking, trail rides, hunting, boat
rentals, swimming, water skiing, para-sailing, horseback riding,
pack trips, miniature golf, go karts, paddle boats and of course
geocaching.
The view from the coordinates gives you an opportunity to see
the moraines that helped form Wallowa Lake. It is here that the
federal government took back almost 6 million acres of land that
was set aside for the Nez Perce when a gold rush brought many
settlers into the Nez Perce territory around 1863. The elder Chief
Joseph denounced the United States destroying his American flag and
Bible and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley. After
the elder Chief Joseph’s death in 1871, his son, who is also
Chief Joseph tried to keep his group in the area. In 1873 there was
a federal order that required white settlers to leave the Wallowa
Valley to Chief Joseph and his people. But by 1877 the federal
government changed its mind and sent General Oliver Otis Howard and
his cavalry to force Joseph’s band onto the reservation in
Idaho. As the group of about 200-300 Nez Perce warriors and
families made the trek to Idaho, some 20 young warriors turned on
the white settlers, killing several settlers in raids. This was the
start of a long 3 month trek for the Nez Perce that ended with
Chief Joseph’s surrender on October 5, 1877 40 miles from the
Canadian border. A monument to Chief Joseph rests at the north end
of the lake.
Wallowa Lake is a glacier formed lake and has the best examples of
ancient moraines found anywhere in North America. Glaciers covered
this region 3 to 7 times over many years. The Bennett Glacier (most
records do not show any named glaciers here) was in the West Fork
of the Wallowa River for about 20 years. As the glacier ice flowed
from the Wallowa Mountains into the valley floor, it picked up
rocks and sediment and debris from the surrounding land. The rocks
are pulverized, crushed and left behind as piles of rock debris
called moraines. A simple definition of a moraine is material
transported by a glacier and then deposited.
There are eight types of moraines, and two of them are found at
these coordinates.
Ground Moraine – deposits over the valley floor. There
is no obvious features and is found where the glacier ice meets the
rock underneath the glacier. It can be washed out by melt water
from the glacier as it retreats.
Lateral Moraine – form along the edges of the
glacier. Material from the valley walls is broken up and mixed with
the ice. It is carried along the sides of the glacier and when the
ice melts it forms a ridge of material along the valley side.
Medial Moraine – is formed from two lateral
moraines. When glaciers merge, the two edges that meet form the
centerline of the new glacier where the material is deposited and
forms a ridge along the valley center.
Push Moraine – are only formed by glaciers that
have retreated and then advanced again. Individual rocks are pushed
upwards from their original positions and shoved into a pile.
Recessional Moraine – forms at the end of the glacier
and is found across the valley, not along it. It is formed where a
retreating glacier remained in one place for enough time to produce
a mound of material.
Terminal Moraine – forms at the snout of the glacier.
It is at the furtherest reach of the ice. It looks like a large
mound of debris.
Supraglacial Moraine – is material on the surface
of a glacier including the lateral & medial moraines, other
loose rock debris and also dust settling from the air.
Englacial Moraine – is material trapped within the
ice. It includes material that fell down crevasses of the glacier
and also rocks that are scraped along the valley floor.
To count this earthcache as a find, please email me the answers to
the following:
- Which two types of moraine examples are found here?
- Posting a picture is no longer allowed as a reguirement for
logging an earthcache as of 1/1/11 but would be greatly
appreciated. If you choose to post a picture of yourself, do so
with your gps at the coords with one of the moraines in the
background.
- Describe the lake: What effect does the weather have on the
lake today?