Laser Mapping May Help Solve Mystery of Mima Mounds The Seattle Times

The "pimpled prairies" of Southwest Washington state have presented a mystery ever since the first settling of the area. The mystery concerns how the mounds were formed. New mapping methods, using lasers, may have solved the mystery. Then, again, perhaps not. One of the longheld theories about the origins of the mounds is that they were formed by the actions of gophers. Gopher theorists are rejecting the new theory, formed after the laser mapping, that says the mounds were formed by retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. With photo.