9-12-02  3:30-5:00 Commons Whitewater Room

Presenters: Mary Reed (Director, Latah County Historical Society since 1983), Tom Williams (Idaho Geologic Survey), & Von Walden (Climatology specialist, UI Geography Dept.)

3:30 Kenton: Introductions of guests and speakers

3:45 Mary Reed: emphasized the importance of "local history," and gave examples of Ken Burns’ Civil War television series and "Frontier House" on public television. She found our fascination with Sept. 11 to be with "compelling storite" and "real voices." Mary addressed the connection between physical space & memory, and in that context described the McConnell Mansion as an "intimate artifact." She emphasized that oral histories are about thoughts, feelings, & memories, not facts. The group enjoyed listening to a recording of an interview with Lola Clyde. Mary told stories about Potlatch as a "company town," Edward Swensen’s growing up near Kendrick when, as a boy in the late 1880s(?), his mama told him to ask the Indians who were loitering on "their" property to move their horses. The boy somehow communicated her wishes to the non-English-speaking Nez Perce, then the mother invited them in for supper. Mary told participants about Emma Fair, who homesteaded on Big Bear Ridge in the 1880s and stayed on with her young children, even after her husband’s death. Mary told those in attendance that the Latah County Historical Museum is open from 1:00-5:00 Tue-Sat and beginning in Oct, will be open from 1:00-4:00.

~4:30 Tom Williams: spoke about "Geology Underfoot on the Palouse." He described windblown loess as "rock flour" created by glacial "bulldozing." He compared Earth to a cracked "hardboiled egg," with the tectonic plate moving in response to volcanic activity, like pieces of the shell. To make the magnitude comprehensible, he likened the Missoula Floods to multiple episodes of flooding by 60-70 Amazon Rivers. To Williams, spatter cones are like popcorn poppers. Tom showed slides demonstrating examples of "world class" paleobotany preservation at Clarkia, Idaho. He explained that Paradise Ridge is composed of metamorphosed quartz sandstone "belt rocks," "really old stuff." Tom’s office is in McClure Hall room 325 and his e-mail address is tomw@uidaho.edu

~5:15 Von Walden: talked about "The Weather & Climate of the Pacific Northwest & the Palouse." He engaged participants with a David Letterman-style countdown of the top ten weather extremes…the first of which was the Teton Dam flood of 6-5-76. Ironically, it was actually a failure of an earthen dam, so from Von’s perspective, as #1 of the top 10 weather-related extremes, it was kind of "anticlimatic." Another example he gave was of Mount Baker’s 1,140 inches of snowfall in one year. Von explained the Aleutian Low and showed maps of the prominent low pressure systems which are symmetrical in Jan. and asymmetrical in July. He showed maps of El Nino Southern Oscillation, AKA ENSO, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, AKA PDO, oceanographic surface temperature fluctuations affecting weather worldwide. He cited Harshburger, et al. (2001 J. of Hydrology), who found a negative correlation between wnter precipitation in Idaho and both ENSO and PDO. Von therefore predicted lower than normal precipitation on the Palouse this winter, and suggested that we think twice before buying ski passes now.