Somewhere between 15 and 17 million years
ago, the area around Washington, Oregon, and Idaho were among their
moments of greatest activity. The volcanoes in the Cascades were
still active and immense pockets of molten hot magma littered the
tri-state area hidden below the surface. They waited for their moment
to burst out the the Earth's crust and cover as much area as they
possibly could.
The eruption was inevitable. It was called a basalt flow. The pockets
of magma "oozed" out of the 25 foot fissures in the ground
and filled every depression in its grasp. The amazing thing was,
the lava could fill up an area the size of Maine in less than a
week. Fortunetly, the largest and last of these un-comparable events
in the Washington area occured before the first humans started to
explore the Earth. A chronicle of the events are as follows:
1. The Imnaha basalts flood occured between 17 and 17.4 million
years ago. The magma covered northern Oregon and western Idaho.
A defining fact of this flood was that it was several hundred feet
deep.
2. The Picture Gorge basalts flood was one of the minor basalt
floods in the region. They broke to the surface very early in the
chain of magma flows, and were therefore covered by the newer and
much larger flows.
 3.
Of the four major floods, the Grande Ronde basalt flood was the
most important to the Douglas Creek area. It was the flow that deposited
the types of rock and soil that can currently be found today throughout
the canyon. It burst out between 14.5 and 16.5 million years ago,
and buried any earlier flows that occured in the area. The Grande
Ronde dumped approximently 85% of the current basalt in Washington
and Oregon. It completed the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington
by sinking the earth's crust in that area with immense mass.
4. The final of the four major flows was the Wanapum basalts. They
were active between 13 and 14.5 million years ago and spread over
the central Grande Ronde including the Douglas Creek canyon.
 This
map represents the Missoula Lake, Montana flood. The lake was held
in check by an ice dam. When the dam eventually broke, the contents
of the lake rushed out and covered both northern Idaho and eastern
Washington. As seen, Douglas Creek was one of the affected areas.
The canyon walked through today was carved out by the massive amounts
of water flowing throughout the county-side.
Timeline: May 21, 1909 - Construction of the railroad began at
the Columbia River
October 9, 1909 - Construction of the railroad was finished in
Mansfield. The railroad was opened for use.
June 1948 - The "big flood" damaged 30 bridges, 8 were
completly eliminated. This flood also wiped out about a mile of
track which was never rebuilt.
1954 - The mile of track that was wiped away was officially abandoned.
Spring 1984 - The idea of using the larger cars on the line was
discarded after several derailments of he C- 4 hopper cars.
December 1984 - Burlington Northern Railroad filed abondanment
on the Mansfield line.
January 31,1985 - The abandonment of the Mansfield line became
offical.
Facts:
- The top speed permitted for the trains, was 10 miles per hour.
- In the small community of Waterville, about 100 people gathered
to see off the last train to ever to leave the station. (People
knew that they were seeing the Douglas County's last 75 years of
railroad history come to a close.) This train consisted of 40 boxcars
and a caboose.
- The Mansfield railroad line was located from the Columbia River
to Mansfield, extending 60.62 miles.
Pilings left behind from an old railroad bridge located on the
Douglas Creek trail. |
