Whitman Geology - 35mm Slides

A few images from my 35mm slide collection, including a few of the 1996 Walla Walla flood and other trips with Whitman Geology students. Apologies for the low resolution. I photographed them on a light table using my phone.

Standing atop Bennington Lake Dam watching the waters rise. Bob, hoping to move things along, brought a shovel. Karl aided and abedded. 1996.

Tubbs hamming it up in downtown Walla Walla, 1996.

Bob chatting up a Walla Walla County employee at Mill Creek during the flood of 1996.

Bob: "You see, its a hypothetical cat that may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead in two different places as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. "

County Employee: "Sounds like you want access to the dam site."

Bob: "Yes."

County Employee: "No."

Walla Walla, 1996.

Dayton, WA after the waters dropped, 1996.

Walla Walla near Whitman College.

Private school has its benefits. Nothing better than waffles and oysters when you're hung over.

Sheep Rock area (Hwy 19) in central Oregon.

Rocking it '90s style at Smith Rock, OR. Not Pat, of course. He's timeless.

Two punks at Mount St. Helens walk into a crater...

"I should be studying for the GRE, not wasting time with hapless heathens." A future professor in Central Oregon.

"No one needs to study for the GRE." A future professor at Emmons Glacier, Mt. Rainier.

Mount St. Helens crater overlook. Luckily, everything nearby has already burnt to the ground.

Winter enjoying Spring.

Snake River canyon, OR-ID.

Mt. Stuart North Ridge climb, 20 pitches.

Palouse Falls, WA.

Tuition: $40k/year. Skiing eddy bar sands on a Tuesday afternoon: Priceless. Columbia Basin, WA.

Bob not staring into the abyss. Yet it stares back anyway. Did I mention the 40k tuition? Jordan Craters, OR.

I value my Whitman education. I do, however, wonder where the school is headed. The priorities of the college today - indeed those of many schools in the Pacific Northwest - seem more and more irrelevant and less and less interesting. I cannot recall the last time I saw an article on geoscience in the alumni magazine, which is odd given the quality of the program and its majors. I'll continue to support Whitman, but in a limited way: playing golf in alumni tournaments. Whitman's Geology Department doesn't reach out to its alums for much, which is a shame. By contrast, the University of Wyoming's Geology & Geophysics Department, where I did my graduate work, has a fancy plaque with a donor's name on it outside of every classroom, lab space, and broom closet. Their alums give millions.