A topographic map called "Slice of Washington" runs diagonally from the northwest corner of the state to the southeast corner. Primarily relating to the state's geology, one of the section's main themes is the human relationship to the land. An animated projection features the evolution of the state's topography and geologic formation.
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The "Slice of Washington" topographic map will give you insight into the geologic origins of Washington's seven physiographic regions. The slice allows visitors to view Washington beneath the surface—to see the violent forces that have shaped our state and influenced everything from the crops we grow to the work we do.
Open the drawers just below the "Slice of Washington" and you'll find a sampling of Washington's geologic wonders. From fossils to fluorescence, pigments to metal ores, the view from inside the drawers will change the way you view the outside of Washington.
Press the buttons on the Washington Over Time exhibit, and you'll see how the Cascade Mountains emerged from the Pacific, how huge rivers and lakes of lava formed the Columbia Basin, and how the glaciers of the Ice Age shaped the contours of the Washington we know today. See how modern-day Washington sparkles at night, visible even from outer space.
Get a glimpse into the lives of Washingtonians around the turn of the century. The wall panels in Natural Settings will show you logging on the Olympic Peninsula, lumbermills in Seattle and the Puget Sound, glaciers and the railroad in the Cascade Mountains, Grand Coulee and Celilo Falls before the dam, and the harvesting of wheat and apples in the Palouse.
Dating back 13,000 years, about the time of the last North American Ice Age, the Clovis points are the museum's oldest artifacts. Made of agate, chalcedony quartz, and mammoth or mastodon bone, the fluted points, bifaces, scrapers, and bone rods are thought to be either hunting tools or ceremonial objects.