Mount St. Helens — The Volcano

Mount St. Helens —The Volcano By The Oregonian Publishing Company

A vintage 48-page Book documenting the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. 

Copyright 1980 by The Oregonian Publishing Company, Portland, Oregon.

The Forward:

     “Only twice before since the coming of the white man has a mountain peak in the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Range erupted, but in Prehistoric times, thick blankets of lava and pumice covered the surface of Oregon and Washington.

     The first modern-day eruption of this serene setting was a century and a quarter ago when a few pioneers and adventurers saw steam, ash, and fiery lava spew from Mount St. Helens in Southwest Washington, a peak the Native Americans called Lawelatla, the smoking mountain. Those eruptions continued for a decade before the snowcapped peak fell into long sleep.

     The second occurred at Mount Lassen, the southernmost peak of the Cascade Range, in Northern California, in 1914 and continued until 1921.

     The third eruption of this era began March 27, 1980, on the summit of Mount St. Helens just 45 miles north of Portland. Towering clouds of steam, gas, and ash have intrigued Northwesterners and, indeed, the entire world ever since.

     This album is the story in pictures and prose of this reawakened volcano of the picturesque Cascades.”

 ~ J. Richard Nokes, Editor of The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon