Hells Canyon, Idaho
By keeping our eyes and minds open, we can read the stories recorded in and on the rocks of the Snake River. Clues are all around if we know what to look for and how to interpret them. The vast thickness of layered basalts tells of an extended interval of time tens of millions of years ago when molten rock oozed across the landscape. Patches of powdery white ash along the river is evidence of more recent volcanic activity of a different, more explosive kind. The steep cliffs, big boulders, gravel bars, and even the placement of the rapids on the Snake are evidence of the monstrous, catastrophic floods that repeatedly thundered through the region during the ice age.
So the stories of Mother Nature can be found around us, but so can the stories of humans. As we commemorate the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery, we are also remembering the history of other peoples who came before Lewis and Clark. The petroglyphs pictured above were carved onto rocks in Hells Canyon by the Nez Perce thousands of years earlier. The exact meaning of these carvings is lost to time, but the time and dedication their production must have taken speaks of their importance to the artists. Some years after Lewis and Clark traversed this landscape, missionaries, homesteaders, miners and ranchers moved in to the area. Along the banks of the river, we saw signs of these later inhabitants in the stone foundations of an old mining operation built onto a steep hillside and heard our jetboat pilot describe a more recent attempt to quarry limestone from the Snake. Although neither operation was successful, evidence of these human efforts is clearly visible. The limestone and other economically important rocks are derived from plate tectonic processes that occurred millions of years ago. So we come full circle—the rocks provide clues to their history and at the same time provide opportunities for humans to leave their own mark on this dramatic landscape.
By keeping our eyes and minds open, we can read the stories recorded in and on the rocks of the Snake River. Clues are all around if we know what to look for and how to interpret them. The vast thickness of layered basalts tells of an extended interval of time tens of millions of years ago when molten rock oozed across the landscape. Patches of powdery white ash along the river is evidence of more recent volcanic activity of a different, more explosive kind. The steep cliffs, big boulders, gravel bars, and even the placement of the rapids on the Snake are evidence of the monstrous, catastrophic floods that repeatedly thundered through the region during the ice age.
So the stories of Mother Nature can be found around us, but so can the stories of humans. As we commemorate the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery, we are also remembering the history of other peoples who came before Lewis and Clark. The petroglyphs pictured above were carved onto rocks in Hells Canyon by the Nez Perce thousands of years earlier. The exact meaning of these carvings is lost to time, but the time and dedication their production must have taken speaks of their importance to the artists. Some years after Lewis and Clark traversed this landscape, missionaries, homesteaders, miners and ranchers moved in to the area. Along the banks of the river, we saw signs of these later inhabitants in the stone foundations of an old mining operation built onto a steep hillside and heard our jetboat pilot describe a more recent attempt to quarry limestone from the Snake. Although neither operation was successful, evidence of these human efforts is clearly visible. The limestone and other economically important rocks are derived from plate tectonic processes that occurred millions of years ago. So we come full circle—the rocks provide clues to their history and at the same time provide opportunities for humans to leave their own mark on this dramatic landscape.
