Mount St. Helens

BEFORE THE VOLCANO BLEW (right). Mount St. Helens in 1980, before it erupted. In the foreground is old Harry R. Truman, the stubbon landowner who refused to evacuate to safety when the government warned residents in the area, who ultimately lost his life to the mountain he loved.

BOILING ASH (left). March 8th, 2005 - photographed by Scott Miller from the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO (see right). Mount St. Helens' fury on May 18th, 1980. This catastrophic eruption killed 57 people, triggered massive land- and mud-slides, wiped out entire forests for miles around the mountain, and spewed enough ash into the atomosphere to change weather patterns around the world, across the U.S., and in particular, over the Washington and Oregon areas for at least the next three years.

On the morning of the eruption, I went outside and found 1/8" of volcanic dust on my white Datsun B-210. My future husband, two hours away on the campus of Washington State University, experienced 6" of ashfall and eclipse-like darkness for eighteen hours that day!

For more detail on what happened that day
and to read about the people who lost their lives,
visit "The Many Faces of Mount St. Helens."

TWO YEARS AGO - My sons and I took a trip back home to visit friends and family. Here we are, with Mount St. Helens only five miles away, standing in the direct path of the original eruption. Photo snapped from the Johnston Ridge Observatory (currently closed due to recent volcanic activity).

And yeah, I was a little nervous.