Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field, National Natural Landmark in Douglas County, Washington State.
Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field is a National Natural Landmark on the Waterville Plateau in Douglas County, Washington. It consists of a terminal moraine ridge and a field of elongated glacial hills called drumlins, both shaped by the movement of an ancient ice sheet.
During the Pleistocene, roughly 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, a large ice sheet advanced across the Columbia Plateau and reshaped the Waterville Plateau as it moved. When the ice pulled back, it left behind the moraine ridge and the drumlin field that still mark the terrain today.
The landscape around the Withrow Moraine is familiar to people living on the Waterville Plateau, where the rounded hills and ridges are simply part of the scenery. Earth science students and researchers visit the area to study glacial landforms that are rarely so clearly visible at the surface.
The area sits on private land, so getting permission from the landowner is required before any visit. There are no public trails leading to the landforms, so it is worth clarifying access conditions well in advance.
The terminal moraine found here is the only one of its kind on the entire Waterville Plateau, making it a formation found nowhere else in the region. What adds to this is that a drumlin field sits right alongside it, meaning two distinct glacial features occur together in the same spot.
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