Today is the 35th anniversary of the eruption. I was wondering what you Warshingtonians remember of that time.
Mount St. Helens
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oregon steel
ArboristSite Lurker
Eastern Oregon got a dusting of ash, Ellensburg on the other hand took a big shot of it
Joe46
ArboristSite Guru
I was living on the Olympic Peninsula at the time. I remember hearing it go off. We got a very very slight dusting. Our prevaling winds were almost always from the west. I was redoing fences that day. My boots had a slight gray dusting on them, but you really couldn't see it in the air coming down.
I am embarrassed to say, I was sleeping in and it woke me up. I was at my folk's house for the weekend. They lived in a radio/tv challenged area. There was no mention of it. None. My dad was watching golf
on one of a couple of channels they got which was based in Spokane. I was outside and saw a big, black sky coming up the coulee. The barometer read at the usual high setting.
Then it hit the place and my dad figured it out. His famous words were, let's put a sheet on the ground and see if we can collect some ash. Well, then it got a little more serious--but not too bad because we were on the north edge of the cloud. Still there was no mention of the eruption until it hit near Spokane.
My folks insisted I must stay another night, which was hell. They insisted we must stay indoors but could not run the air conditioner and their house was a mobile home (oven). The TV stayed on and somehow I heard about soaking the air cleaner in oil and putting a nylon stocking over it. The main roads were closed the next day. I did the air filter trick and got out of there by going on the back roads. I made it back to my little trailer in the Methow Valley and was pleased to hear that I didn't miss work because they cancelled working that Monday. However, my little Datsun pickup ate a quart of oil every 150 miles after that trip.
That wasn't much of an impact compared to the stories from local people. One guy was up on a hillside with a non-English crew of tree planters. He saw the mountain explode, and said the lightning bolt was really impressive. They watched and then realized maybe they should head on down back to civilization. The ash cloud hit and it was dark. Almost too dark to see the road. His FS pickup died so he climbed in with the tree planters who all looked scared to death. It took 3 hours to travel what normally was a half hour or 45 minutes. I'm not sure where the planting crew went, but the FS guy had to bed down on the office floor for a night or two. He lived 17 miles away and the highway was closed.
There are several local loggers who would have been killed had the eruption happened on any other day of the week. They had been logging in the area.
When I moved here in 1984, there were still minor eruptions occurring. There'd be light dustings of ash. The news people weren't even reporting those anymore. I got in on the slash burning of the areas that were salvage logged. Those were big units and we had a couple of shifts that lasted 30 hours or so. A few years ago, I drove up there and couldn't figure out where we'd worked. The area was replanted and the trees are almost ready for a commercial thin.
The area that is the Monument was not logged or replanted and is still mostly brush.
on one of a couple of channels they got which was based in Spokane. I was outside and saw a big, black sky coming up the coulee. The barometer read at the usual high setting.Then it hit the place and my dad figured it out. His famous words were, let's put a sheet on the ground and see if we can collect some ash. Well, then it got a little more serious--but not too bad because we were on the north edge of the cloud. Still there was no mention of the eruption until it hit near Spokane.
My folks insisted I must stay another night, which was hell. They insisted we must stay indoors but could not run the air conditioner and their house was a mobile home (oven). The TV stayed on and somehow I heard about soaking the air cleaner in oil and putting a nylon stocking over it. The main roads were closed the next day. I did the air filter trick and got out of there by going on the back roads. I made it back to my little trailer in the Methow Valley and was pleased to hear that I didn't miss work because they cancelled working that Monday. However, my little Datsun pickup ate a quart of oil every 150 miles after that trip.
That wasn't much of an impact compared to the stories from local people. One guy was up on a hillside with a non-English crew of tree planters. He saw the mountain explode, and said the lightning bolt was really impressive. They watched and then realized maybe they should head on down back to civilization. The ash cloud hit and it was dark. Almost too dark to see the road. His FS pickup died so he climbed in with the tree planters who all looked scared to death. It took 3 hours to travel what normally was a half hour or 45 minutes. I'm not sure where the planting crew went, but the FS guy had to bed down on the office floor for a night or two. He lived 17 miles away and the highway was closed.
There are several local loggers who would have been killed had the eruption happened on any other day of the week. They had been logging in the area.
When I moved here in 1984, there were still minor eruptions occurring. There'd be light dustings of ash. The news people weren't even reporting those anymore. I got in on the slash burning of the areas that were salvage logged. Those were big units and we had a couple of shifts that lasted 30 hours or so. A few years ago, I drove up there and couldn't figure out where we'd worked. The area was replanted and the trees are almost ready for a commercial thin.
The area that is the Monument was not logged or replanted and is still mostly brush.
I climbed mount Hood the day before and I have a pic I need to scan into the computer of Saint Helens all black from all the small eruptions before it blew. had many ash days but not like Eastern warshington that turned dark like night from the ash. I was actually sleeping after getting home at 2 oclock in the mornin from the climb when the actual eruption went off. It was weird to hear on the new that the toutle river closed I5 from the mud flows.
Five things I remember where I was and what I was doing at the time In an 8 year span. First been in '77 when my sister opened the front door and yelled up the stairs "Elvil Presley just died. Then the two happening in 1980, Again sitting with my Parents and my sister opening the door and says John Lennon was stot.
And may 18 1980.My Mother keep telling me Mt. Washington just blew up. So I was thinking Mt Washinton( for some weird reason; she was like 37 yrs old so she could have been going senile...lol) Which is about an hour north of us and they had just opened the winter of that year as a ski mountain and I was fortunate to have skied there. We finally got on the same page as she was a little freaked out.
There was a little bit of settlement on cars from time to time in Victoria BC about a third of the time the winds are from the south west so Alberta had a lot of settlement as would many inland states.
I remember the old man that lived up there in his cabin while everyone evacuated he refused. Eventually he did finally perish from a later eruption. It was some time I believe before death came knocking.
They tried to get him to come did the the national gaurd the firefighters the police.
They made many attempt saying "this is your last chance we got to go...you are going to perish up here. He would always say the Lord would save him.
Next thing you know Joe perishes in the slides and he's just pissed He's in heaven and see's a name on a door that said "GOD. He comes 'flying through GOD'S door yelling "WHY LORD! WHY! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN
ME? I BELIEVED IN YOU BUT YOU LET ME PERISH!
God replies: Hey! I sent the coast guard...I sent the forest service...I sent the police...
Ok I'm not sure about "Joe's" relationship with God put the story of bim is 100 % true.
The other two things was Ronald Reagan been shot in '81 and the the space shuttle in '86
And may 18 1980.My Mother keep telling me Mt. Washington just blew up. So I was thinking Mt Washinton( for some weird reason; she was like 37 yrs old so she could have been going senile...lol) Which is about an hour north of us and they had just opened the winter of that year as a ski mountain and I was fortunate to have skied there. We finally got on the same page as she was a little freaked out.
There was a little bit of settlement on cars from time to time in Victoria BC about a third of the time the winds are from the south west so Alberta had a lot of settlement as would many inland states.
I remember the old man that lived up there in his cabin while everyone evacuated he refused. Eventually he did finally perish from a later eruption. It was some time I believe before death came knocking.
They tried to get him to come did the the national gaurd the firefighters the police.
They made many attempt saying "this is your last chance we got to go...you are going to perish up here. He would always say the Lord would save him.
Next thing you know Joe perishes in the slides and he's just pissed He's in heaven and see's a name on a door that said "GOD. He comes 'flying through GOD'S door yelling "WHY LORD! WHY! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN
ME? I BELIEVED IN YOU BUT YOU LET ME PERISH!
God replies: Hey! I sent the coast guard...I sent the forest service...I sent the police...
Ok I'm not sure about "Joe's" relationship with God put the story of bim is 100 % true.
The other two things was Ronald Reagan been shot in '81 and the the space shuttle in '86
spindrift7mm
Changing the World One Saw at a time !
**** you remember all that stuff ?
windthrown
361 Junkie
Oregonians were affected as well. I was here when that happened. St Helens is all of 50 miles north of my father's old house in Gresham, OR. There was a lot of resentment from locals net being able to go home, as they had evacuated the area before the eruption. Old Harry Truman that lived in Spirit Lake refused to leave. He is buried there under tons of ash. The mountain went Ka-Boom! and fortunately for us the blast was toward the north and the winds were from the west/southwest when it happened. So the main blast ash went mainly east/northeast. Walla Walla was buried pretty deep in ash. The stuff was floating all round here for weeks after that. Portland got several dustings of the stuff when the winds shifted from the north, and my father's yard got about a half inch of ash total. It was not like snow, it did not melt. The ash is mainly puffed silica, not healthy to breathe. We wore surgeons masks when we went outside. It also choked up engines and my motorcycle had a lot of fine dust in it when I drained and changed the oil. The air was full of dust for weeks and the sunsets here were eerie. Deep reds, greens and purple shades of clouds and sky late into the night.
More recently on several trips to Cascade National Park in the mid 00's, St Helens was venting small steam and ash plumes again, but they were localized. You could see it from I-5 and from various places around Portland. St. Helens used to look like an ice cream sundae. Now it is clipped and looks rather uncharacteristic of a Cascade stratovolcano. It lost a lot of height in the eruption, going from to 9,677 ' to 8,366'.
More recently on several trips to Cascade National Park in the mid 00's, St Helens was venting small steam and ash plumes again, but they were localized. You could see it from I-5 and from various places around Portland. St. Helens used to look like an ice cream sundae. Now it is clipped and looks rather uncharacteristic of a Cascade stratovolcano. It lost a lot of height in the eruption, going from to 9,677 ' to 8,366'.
windthrown
361 Junkie
Taken from Toledo, WA 35 miles north of Mt. St. Helens. The lower ash cloud is 10 miles wide. This initial explosion was equivalent to detonating 20 million tons of TNT.
"MtStHelens Mushroom Cloud" by Rocky Kolberg
"MtStHelens Mushroom Cloud" by Rocky Kolberg
A lot of people remember a lot of these things. May 18th 1980 is a date I've heard more times than I've said my own Birthday. Its instilled in my brain. It was in the news for years 'here' very memorable story of the guy that wouldn't leave too. Just one of those events in history that people that were close will always remember, like they say about Kennedy for the ones that were around then. 'Everyone knows where they were at the time they heard. I remember falkland islands in '82 and golf war in 91.
US hostages in '79 end of the Vietnam era on TV in 74- 75 (Cambodia) The Iran/Iraq war in the '80s ...The years Vancouver Canucks went to the finals...yeah I got memories man.
windthrown
361 Junkie
Hey, I remember that Nanaimo is (or was) the bathtub capital of the world. I read that sign there when I was 10.
treeslayer2003
Addicted to ArboristSite
i'm on the other coast but i remember mt. st. helens and all that other stuff to........even jimmy carter LOL.
srb08
Doesn't play well with others
I remember hearing about the eruption, seeing the pictures and thinking.............I sure wouldn't want to move there.I am embarrassed to say, I was sleeping in and it woke me up. I was at my folk's house for the weekend. They lived in a radio/tv challenged area. There was no mention of it. None. My dad was watching golf
Then it hit the place and my dad figured it out. His famous words were, let's put a sheet on the ground and see if we can collect some ash. Well, then it got a little more serious--but not too bad because we were on the north edge of the cloud. Still there was no mention of the eruption until it hit near Spokane.
My folks insisted I must stay another night, which was hell. They insisted we must stay indoors but could not run the air conditioner and their house was a mobile home (oven). The TV stayed on and somehow I heard about soaking the air cleaner in oil and putting a nylon stocking over it. The main roads were closed the next day. I did the air filter trick and got out of there by going on the back roads. I made it back to my little trailer in the Methow Valley and was pleased to hear that I didn't miss work because they cancelled working that Monday. However, my little Datsun pickup ate a quart of oil every 150 miles after that trip.
That wasn't much of an impact compared to the stories from local people. One guy was up on a hillside with a non-English crew of tree planters. He saw the mountain explode, and said the lightning bolt was really impressive. They watched and then realized maybe they should head on down back to civilization. The ash cloud hit and it was dark. Almost too dark to see the road. His FS pickup died so he climbed in with the tree planters who all looked scared to death. It took 3 hours to travel what normally was a half hour or 45 minutes. I'm not sure where the planting crew went, but the FS guy had to bed down on the office floor for a night or two. He lived 17 miles away and the highway was closed.
There are several local loggers who would have been killed had the eruption happened on any other day of the week. They had been logging in the area.
When I moved here in 1984, there were still minor eruptions occurring. There'd be light dustings of ash. The news people weren't even reporting those anymore. I got in on the slash burning of the areas that were salvage logged. Those were big units and we had a couple of shifts that lasted 30 hours or so. A few years ago, I drove up there and couldn't figure out where we'd worked. The area was replanted and the trees are almost ready for a commercial thin.
The area that is the Monument was not logged or replanted and is still mostly brush.
we had ash fallout in texas
moved there in 1965, stayed till 75, moved out for my duty time and moved back in 78.... moved east till 81 then moved west to work in the ash forest of the ST. Helen's area close to castle rock till 83 ....... moved out to the mid west and still here! !! "DONT MOVE THERE" !!???????????
I lived 28 miles NNW at the time. I was at my parents house with my son on my lap, feeding him scrambled eggs. We were near the far west edge of the ash from that eruption, had about 1/2 an inch of the fine stuff. The lightning in the plume was impressive. The smell was something less so.
I lost a friend in the eruption, he was down fishing on the Green River that day with two other guys. They went into the river, but he didn't swim so he stayed out of the river. He was never found.
I was working on a highway south of Goldendale when the Challenger blew up.
I lost a friend in the eruption, he was down fishing on the Green River that day with two other guys. They went into the river, but he didn't swim so he stayed out of the river. He was never found.
I was working on a highway south of Goldendale when the Challenger blew up.
Didn't live around here then, Mom was glued to the tube the entire week though, my uncle was on a logging job near there camping. This was before cell phones and no one heard from him for awhile.
Turns out the river swallowed their camp, but they got out ok.
Challenger I was in class watching it live, it was a huge deal because a teacher was going to teach a class from space, our teachers and whatnot had talked it up for like a monthe.
Turns out the river swallowed their camp, but they got out ok.
Challenger I was in class watching it live, it was a huge deal because a teacher was going to teach a class from space, our teachers and whatnot had talked it up for like a monthe.
bnmc98
ArboristSite Guru
I was a kid and was camping at Lake Kachelus (sp?) just north and east of Snoqualmie Pass. I remember feeding chipmunks and the ash was coming down. Was pretty young then.
But, later, when I was 14 we were on a church youth group field trip and walked through the blast zone above Spirit Lake where it blew water from the lake up and over the saddle. I want to say N.E. of the lake. Anyways, there was still not much growing at that time and it gave you a real eye-opener of the awesome power of that blast. Miles down to the lake. Dust and ash everywhere years later. It was like walking through a desert. I remember my friend did not bring enough water and mooched off everyone else. He had his fill but we were all parched.
But, later, when I was 14 we were on a church youth group field trip and walked through the blast zone above Spirit Lake where it blew water from the lake up and over the saddle. I want to say N.E. of the lake. Anyways, there was still not much growing at that time and it gave you a real eye-opener of the awesome power of that blast. Miles down to the lake. Dust and ash everywhere years later. It was like walking through a desert. I remember my friend did not bring enough water and mooched off everyone else. He had his fill but we were all parched.
As a Centralia kid, the May 18 eruption was "someplace else", as the prevailing winds blew the ash over E WA and parts elsewhere. The May 28 eruption, however, was a different story. I was sleeping in my playhouse, which is pretty much what 7-year-old me did unless it was freezing out, and woke up in the dark to use the bathroom. When I stepped outside, I found myself ankle-deep in warm snow. Even at the tender age of 7, I knew snow wasn't supposed to be warm, so I went inside to tell my parents about this development. That's when I found out that it was almost 8 in the morning rather than 3 as I thought, and that the sun was blacked out by the ash. School was canceled for the rest of the year, all the rivers flooded, and the gutter guys made a killing that summer because the ash was like plaster of Paris once it found its way into low places. Nobody knew whether the ash was dangerous or not so everybody wore dust masks for a couple of months every time they went outside. People in restaurants and grocery stores alike would simply snap the mask up on to their forehead while conducting business, and pull it back down when they left. Cars all had dryer vent hose routed from the front of the air cleaner up and over and down the back such that they looked like wheeled elephants. It was a surreal time.
