As you may remember in the early morning hours of May 18, 1980 Mount Saint Helens blew its top, literally. It was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the recorded history of the United States. It was especially heart wrenching to Linda. As a young girl she spent a lot of time at the Girl Scout camp located on the eastern shore of Spirit Lake, which sat at the base of Mt. St. Helens. The evening news reported that Spirit Lake had completely vanished and the girl scout camp as well. We wondered, how could that possibly be? And the answer: an avalanche of biblical proportions caused by the eruption roared down the mountainside and plummeted into the lake. When tons of dirt and rock hit the water it caused a tidal wave. When it struck the shore it removed everything in its path down to bedrock and when the dust had cleared Spirit Lake had vanished, so it seemed. Some time afterwards it was learned that the lake was still there. It was hidden under a layer of trees, trees that had been mowed down by the tidal wave and the enormous shock wave that tore through the forests. That shock wave undulated, rising above the trees in places and then descending to the ground in other places. Each time it touched down it acted like a giant scythe cutting a path through the trees.
On one of our road trips we camped near St. Helens and then journeyed by car to the newly established viewing place where people could see into the caldera and learn of the destruction. Several people had had the same idea and when we arrived they were sitting in bleachers and a ranger was describing what had happened that fateful day. While listening I tried to feel the magnitude of the eruption. It must have been horrifying to those few people who had refused to heed the warnings and remained in place only to be snuffed out in a twinkling. The ranger said that fifty-seven people died that day and that autopsies showed that most of them likely died from asphyxiation after inhaling hot ash. Several days after the eruption and while the ground was still warm the ranger told us about a barbecue that the park staff organized. They buried a butchered pig in the still hot ground and when it was cooked just right, they sat around eating their volcanic pig roast. It sounded possible, but I still wonder if that really happened.
I remember reading about Harry R. Truman who operated Mount St. Helens Lodge. He was among those who perished. At first people who knew Truman thought that perhaps he had survived the eruption, because he had once claimed to have provisioned an abandoned mine shaft with food and liquor in case of an eruption. To this day his remains have not been found. I remember a TV docudrama I saw many years ago. It was titled, The Legend of Harry R, Truman, and starred Art Carney playing the part of Truman. Darn it, I tried looking for it on the Internet, but had no luck. I do recall the final scene. There’s Truman sitting in a row boat. His fishing on the lake, when all of sudden there’s a loud explosion, he looks up with a puzzled look on his face and then the scene goes blank. Goodbye Harry R. Truman. The End
I leave you to ponder this sobering thought: We live on this planet just as long as the forces of the Universe allow us to remain. [Note: I made the photograph of Spirt Lake several years ago and of course long after the eruption Those are floating logs at the end of the lake.]
k
