Palouse Falls State Park
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Palouse Falls State Park
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 Palouse Falls |
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| location | Franklin County in Washington (USA) | |
| surface | 42 ha | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 40 ′ N , 118 ° 13 ′ W | |
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| Setup date | 1951 | |
| administration | Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission | |
The Palouse Falls State Park is a state park in the US state of Washington . The 42-acre park is 37 km southeast of Washtucna in Franklin County in the southeast of the state. The park got its name from its main attraction, the 60 m high Palouse Falls .
geography
The Palouse River flows within the park by a glacial by the Missoula Floods before 13,000 and 15,000 years eroded canyon and plunges it over a cliff into a round basin. The towering walls of the canyon consist of up to 30 m thick layers of Columbia plateau basalt . When the Palouse River hits its peak in spring and early summer, the waterfall is most impressive.
fauna
Yellow-bellied marmots , bull snakes and rattlesnakes live on the steep canyon walls .
history
The United States Exploring Expedition , which discovered it in 1841, was the first to report on the waterfall. The Palouse Indians called the case of Aput Aput , which translates as “falling water”. The land for the park was donated by several companies and private individuals, the park itself was founded on June 3, 1951. To commemorate the Palouse Indian tribe, the case was renamed.
According to a legend of the Palouse Indians, the Palouse River once flowed gently into the Snake River. But four giants who were brothers chased a mythical being called the Big Beaver and hit it with spears five times. Every time the being was wounded, it furrowed the earth. When it was hit for the fifth time, it valiantly defended itself, drilling a deep canyon into which the river tumbles over the Palouse Falls. The jagged walls of the canyon still show the deep imprints of the Big Beaver's claws.
Tourist facilities
The park has a tent site with ten spaces, an observation platform with a view of the waterfall and picnic areas.
literature
- Marge Mueller, Ted Mueller: Washington State Parks: a Complete Recreation Guide. Seattle: Mountaineers Books 2004, ISBN 0-89886-642-1
Web links
- State Park website
- Palouse Falls State Park on the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
Individual evidence
- ↑ USGS: Glacial Lake Missoula and the Missoula Floods. Retrieved September 30, 2011 .
- ↑ WTA: Palouse Falls. Retrieved September 30, 2011 .
- ↑ Washington State Parks: Palouse Falls State Park, pdf file. (PDF; 237 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 16, 2011 ; Retrieved September 30, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Clark, Ella E.: Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003, ISBN 978-0-520-23926-5 , pp. 117 f
