Mima Mounds

Hello friends! Hope this finds you well! As many of you know, my human travels for her job. We have been living in Portland, Oregon, but her post there was coming to an end, and the last weekend there, we traveled to a lovely little place called Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve just south of Olympia, Washington. 

Mima Mounds is made up of grass covered earthen mounds, plus some forest and oak woodlands. There are hiking trails through this preserve, one of which is paved. Perfect for my human.

The mounds were pretty cool. There are about 8 to 10 mounds per acre, with each being from 1 to 7 feet tall and 8 to 40 feet in diameter. Some of the first white settlers thought they were Native American burial mounds. But upon excavation, no human remains were found, just dirt and gravel. Silly white folk. They should have just asked the locals! 

How were they formed, you ask. Well, no one knows for sure. Some 30 explinations have been purposed, but none proven yet. The Upper Chehalis People, the original people in the area, have a legion story about their formation. It goes like this: "Thrush was a disgrace to the tribe: the people had noticed, for many years, that she would not wash her face or bathe; she would not go near the water...'My friends,' Thrush would say, 'if I should wash my face, something might happen to this earth...' One day at last she consented to wash her face... Clouds started to form immediatly... It rained and rained. The whole earth was flooded... There was nothing but prairie land beneath the water... At last the water fell...[near Mima Prairie]. The earth still remains in the shape of waves. It extends like this for four or five miles." 

Wow! I've heard that some humans don't like to bathe, but that is serious! I bathe myself multiple times a day and nothing like this happens! The universe must really have liked that woman dirty!!!

One theory about their origin was proposed by Walter Dalquest and Victor Scheffer, in 1940. They purposed that the mounds were formed by pocket gophers. After glaciers from the ice age left the area, pocket gophers came in and began to dig nest chambers. Because there was a dense layer of glacial debris beneath the soil, they couldn't dig deep, so they just moved soil upwards, forming mounds. Most geologists disagree with this theory. Me too. This sounds a little crazy.

Most other theories are based on how the earth responded to the receding glaciers. Geologists do know they were formed at the end of the ice age, about 16,500 years ago. As the glaciers retreated, torrents of melt water fanned across this land and deposited a load of gravel and rock. Why and how they formed mounds is what geologists don't know yet.

What I know is that this preserve was fun, at least cat fun. I loved the tall grass. Walking through it flushed out the bugs, which I then chased. 

There was a look out platform there to get you above some of the mounds for a better view. I, of course, liked walking on the rails. 

I pretended I was in the grasslands of Africa looking out over the plains for gazelles. Ok, maybe I couldn't take down a gazelle, but a guy can dream can't he? A guy can dream.

Not only was there tall grass, there were woods in the preserve too. I think you know my feelings about trees. A day in the woods is always a good day! 

So all in all, Mima Mounds was a great place for me and my human. A nice way to spend an afternoon. I give it two paws up. (What? You think I have thumbs?)

Well, that's my story this week. Remember, keep wandering, my friends. Keep wandering.