In Central Washington there is a three and a half mile long precipice called Dry Falls. As you stand at the Dry Falls Overlook you can almost hear the roar of countless milliions of gallons of water falling from the 400 foot high rock face. Of course if you'd been standing there you would have been covered with 300 feet of water. Geologists have speculated that the water, eventually covering much of Eastern Washington, Idaho and Oregon under hundreds of feet of water, rushed by this point at more than 65 mph.
In the summer of 1922 J Harlen Bretz, Ph.D (1882-1981) began a geologic survey of the Channel Scablands of Eastern Washington. As a result of his field work Dr. Bretz concluded that neither glaciation nor stream erosion could account for the scabland features, as was commonly thought. The following year he published a paper proposing that a massive amount of water in a short time period must have created the channel erosion that we can see today. The theory that catastrophic flooding could have resulted in Dry Falls or Grand Coulee went against contemporary scientific theory and Dr. Bretz' theories were argued against for decades. In August 2010 Upper Valley Museum in Leavenworth will host a lecture on Dr. Bretz by John Soennischen: Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood.
Today the Dry Falls Interpretive Center is dedicated to J Harlan Bretz and his work developing the currently, widely accepted theory of the Missoula Flood. In 1979 Dr. Bretz was awarded the Penrose Medal for outstanding scientific contributions in geology.
Dry Falls was carved out during the Missoula Flood (sometimes referred to as the Spokane Flood) as the glacial Lake Missoula finally broke through a glacial dam toward the end of the last ice age. The lake is estimated to have been over 2000 feet deep and to have held more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. The water released in as little as 48 hours is estimated at over 10 times that of the world's current fresh water river flow.
The Dry Falls Interpretive Center, a part of Sun Lakes State Park, has informative displays covering the geology, biology and culture of the area. You'll see fossils from pre-history and cultural finds from Pacific Northwest tribal history. A large dimensional map of the area gives a perspective of the geologic features of the Sun Lakes Park area. There is also a short video presentation and a gift shop with books and videos.
Located on State Road 17, just south of U.S. Route 2, entrance to the Interpretive Center is by donation. There are restrooms and picnic tables.
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