
Ancient Lake Missoula Strandlines -- Nez Perce Reservation near Lower Hog Island, ID
N 46° 26.760 W 116° 53.003
11T E 508957 N 5143609
These faint ancient strandlines show the varying levels of Glacial Lake Missoula - if you know what to look for :)
Waymark Code: WM15QGH
Location: Idaho, United States
Date Posted: 02/10/2022
Views: 4
These ancient Lake Missoula strandlines are located a few miles east of the Nez Perce Village historical marker along US12. They are most clearly viewed by pulling into the Lower Hog Island pull-out.
These ancient shorelines (also called strandlines) are a feature of the modern landscape carved by Glacial Lake Missoula beginning 20,000 years or so ago, and ending with the end of the Ice Age.
The different lines show the different levels of Lake Missoula, which ebbed and flowed over time as periodically Lake Missoula's ice dam broke and massive flood discharges occurred. When the ice dams reformed, the lake filled again, over and over.
Source: (
visit link)
"Glacial Lake Missoula Strandlines
Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Ancient shorelines or strandlines of Glacial Lake Missoula are visible as perfectly parallel horizontal benches ground into hillside slopes around Missoula. . . .
These shoreline benches cut by wave action in the lake recorded various lake levels as the ice dam blocking the Clark Fork River far upstream on the Idaho border repeatedly failed and refilled 40 times or more. Some speculate that as the ice-age waned each successive ice dam that reformed was smaller and failed under less pressure from a lower lake level than the one before, leaving behind its bench as a record of the successively lower ancient lake shorelines. Most agree they record winter still-stands in rising lake levels over time."