The (non-shrinking) Bellevue Erratic: Then and Now

by Clay Kelleher

The photo shows that visitors have NOT been recently removing significant pieces of the famous Erratic Rock near Bellevue Oregon (as is alleged by others). After a GSOC meeting this spring, several of us were browsing through the scrapbooks in the GSOC library and found the 1950 black & white photo.

The Ice Age Floods Institute just happened to have a field trip planned that would include a stop there, so I sent them the photo and they re-staged the photo with the same number of people taken from the same angle. The people are dressed differently and nobody's holding a hammer, but the rock is the same.

So while it might have been "mined" prior to 1950, possibly by locals for flat stones, I believe today's tourists are respectful.