Glacial Lake Columbia Glacial Lake Columbia Glacial Lake Columbia was the lake formed on the ice-dammed Columbia River behind the Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet when the lobe covered of the Waterville Plateau west of Grand Coulee in central Washington state during the Wisconsin glaciation. Lake Columbia was a substantially larger version of the modern-day lake behind the Grand Coulee Dam. Lake Columbia's overflow – the diverted Columbia River – drained first through Foster Coulee, and as the ice dam grew, through first Moses Coulee, and finally, the Grand Coulee. The Cordilleran ice sheet also blocked the Clark Fork River and
Grand Coulee pumped from the Grand Coulee Dam, into Banks Lake to act as an Equalizing Reservoir and irrigation water source. Evidence of the waterfalls includes a plunge basin where the falls began, immediately south of Coulee City. It contains at least of gravel lower than the open flooring of the land. The river above the falls was shallow and much wider than the gorge. Thus, it wrapped around the lip of the main falls creating lateral falls. These flowed until the recession of the main falls denied them water. Northrup Canyon in Steamboat Rock State Park, contains a dry cataract as