The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-09-03
fossil FALLS
MAKE NIAGARA
PUNY TRICKLE
Place Where Tremendous
CataractS Reared Is
Found in West.

CHICAGO. Sept. 3.-Two fossil
Niagaras" that would make the
mightiest waterfall now on earth a
puny trickle by comparison, once
roared in the Grand Coulee, deep,
wide gorge that lies about halfway
between Spokane and Seattle.
These extinct cataracts, now rep
resented only by lines of towering
dry cliffs, have been studied by Pro-
fessor j. Harlem Bretz of the Uni
versity Of Chicago, who has pre-
sented his report on them to the
American Geographical Society.
The water that fed these two
great cataracts came from melting |
glaciers of the great ice age.
Creeping down from the north, |
the ice for ages had blocked the |
course Of the Columbia river AS
the glaciers began to melt and re-
treat, they released immense guam
titles of water, which had to find |
a new watercourse.
OF this necessity was born the
Grand Coulee, whose bed, now dry
except for a chain Of small lakes,
is 1000 feet deep, with width of
a mile at its narrowest point.
Fifty Miles in Length
1t has total length of about fifty
miles, with an interruption in the
cliff walls somewhat more than half |
way down its course dividing it |
into an upper and lower coulee.
The bottom of the Grand Coulee |
is not a fairly even slope, as the
bottom of an ordinary river valley
would be. 1t has humps and ir-
Irregularities, and in the rocky floor,
there are enormous "potholes" a !
hundred feet deep.
Potholes- Steep-sided, round
bottomed holes in solid rock-are
formed in only one way; by the
grinding and pounding of boulders
kept in motion by the force Of fall
ing water
BretZ, therefore, looked for the
remains of a waterfall that might
have done such cyclopean sculp-
toring. He found two, both of ire
mendous proportions.
Six Times Niagara's Size
The lesser of the two falls was
at the head of the lower coulee. 1t
formed group of cataracts, rather
than a single fall; but when the
enormous length of its great "horse-
shoe" and all the lesser bendings
of the remaining cliffs are meas
ured as a straight line, the total
comes to some three and one-half
miles, or nearly six times the
Straight-line width of Niagara Falls.
This tremendous stream leaped
from the crest of 400-foot cliff,
more than double the height of
Niagara and substantially higher
than Victoria Falls in Africa, the
greatest known existing cataract.
But mighty as these falls in the
lower coulee were, they were sur
passed by the Steamboat cataract
OF the upper coulee. This feature
gets its name from a high out
standing rock in front of the cliff.
This once was an island, first on
the brink, as Goat island stands on
the brink of Niagara today, then
left isolated as Goat island also
would be If American and Horse
shoe falls receded at equal rates.
The steamboat cataract was a
good mile wider than the falls SyS-
tenn Of the lower coulee, and more
than twice as high. In the days of
the late Pleistocene, the waters
reared over its cliff in a plunge of
900 feet.
Plan Irrigation Stream
All this super Niagaran magni-
flcence vanished when the receding
glacial front retreated far enough
for the water to flow down the
present course of the Columbia |
river, leaving the upper end of the
coulee high and dry. The head of |
Grand Coulee now stands about |
500 feet above the water level of |
the river, and several miles re-
moved from its course.
Bretz tells of a project to put |
water into the cougee again, not
the laundering poSt-glacial flood,
but an irrigation stream that will
bring green life to its present dry
bottom, and change the farming
basis of the region from dryland |
wheat to irrigated orchards and al
falfa fields.
1t is not expected to build 500
foot dam across the Columbia to
do this; a 200-foot dam is expected
to be sufficient.
The apparent paradox of getting
a 5o0-foot water lift from a 200
foot dam is explained by the fact
that a great pumping station will
be installed. run on the 2OO-foot
water head, to lift the irrigation
water over the 30o-foot hump" to