(Photo courtesy Central Oregon Community College Foundation)
The 2026-27 season of The Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series, a program of the Central Oregon Community College Foundation, gets underway with The Oregon Cascades: A Story Written in Ice, presented by geologist Nick Zentner at 6:30pm on Monday, October 5, at the Tower Theatre in Bend. Tickets are $12 (plus an $8 venue fee for preservation of the historic structure).
Zentner, creator of the popular YouTube channel and PBS show <i>Nick on the Rocks</i> and a professor of geology at Central Washington University, has been investigating whether the Oregon Cascades experienced multiple major glaciations over the past 150,000 years — not just the most recent glaciation period of roughly 20,000 years ago. While geologic evidence appears in Washington state, did the Oregon Cascades experience the same? Zentner will discuss how geologists have pieced together clues from ancient landscapes to uncover ice age secrets.
The Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series has been bringing diverse, thought-provoking programming to Central Oregon since 1985 — from poet-activist Maya Angelou to food justice champion Bryant Terry to journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
Thanks to sponsorships and grants, the events are always offered free to students and at low or no cost to the greater community. Together with the COCC Foundation, former Bulletin editor and owner Robert W. Chandler Sr. established the program in honor of his wife.
