Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
South of the Columbia River the country was never completely enveloped
by the ice, but glaciers extended far down in the valleys from all the
lofty mountain-peaks. In Idaho there are glacial signs from the summit
of the Rocky Mountains down to the westward of Lake Pend d'Oreille. In
the Yellowstone Park there are clear indications that the whole area was
enveloped in glacial ice. An immense boulder of granite, resting upon
volcanic deposits, may be found a little west of Inspiration Point, on
the Yellowstone Cañon. Abundant evidences of glacial action are also
visible down the Yellowstone River to the vicinity of Livingston, showing
that that valley must have been filled with glacial ice to a depth of
sixteen hundred feet. To the west the glaciers from the Yellowstone
Park extended to the border of Idaho, where a clearly marked terminal
moraine is to be found in the Tyghee Pass, leading over from the western
fork of the Madison River into Lewis Fork of the Snake River. South of
Yellowstone Park the Teton Mountains were an important centre for the
dispersion of local glaciers, but they did not descend upon the western
side much below the 6,000-foot level, and only barely came to the edge
of the great Snake River lava plains. To the east the movement from the
Teton Mountains joined that from various other lofty mountains, where
altogether they have left a most intricate system of glacial deposits, in
whose reticulations Jackson's Lake is held in place.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Moraines of Grape Creek, Sangre del Cristo
Mountains, Colorado (after Stevenson).]
In Utah extensive glaciers filled all the northern valleys of the Uintah
Mountains, and extended westward in the Wahsatch range to the vicinity of
Salt Lake City. The mountain region of Colorado, also, had its glaciers,
occupying the head-waters of the Arkansas, the Platte, the Gunnison, and
the Grand Rivers. The most southern point in the Rocky Mountains at which
signs of local glaciers have been noted is near the summits of the San
Juan range, in southwestern Colorado. Here a surface of about twenty-five
square miles, extending from an elevation of 12,000 feet down to 8,000
feet, shows every sign of the former presence of moving ice. The greater
part of the glaciation in Colorado is confined to elevations above 10,000
feet.
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