Last updated: September 27, 2023

The day is May 18, 1980. About 100 miles south of Seattle sits Mount St. Helens, a volcano that has caused earthquakes and steam venting episodes since March. This volcanic activity is extremely out of character for this volcano given it has been hibernating for the past 123 years. While the volcano was being closely monitored during this time, there was no particular change in its behavior on May 18. It behaved as it had been for two months, so it’s sudden eruption that morning came as a surprise. About 57 people were killed directly from the blast, and 200 houses, 47 bridges, 15 mi of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed.

Before the eruption, it was the fifth highest point in Washington, but has since lost that status and you can see why from the photos below.

Harry Truman’s Story

Harry Truman, the Mount St. Helens lodge keeper, refused to leave despite the warning signs of an eruption. He actually became a minor celebrity during the two months of volcanic activity preceding the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, giving interviews to reporters and expressing his opinion that the danger was exaggerated. “I don’t have any idea whether it will blow,” he said, “but I don’t believe it to the point that I’m going to pack up.” Truman displayed little concern about the volcano and his situation: “If the mountain goes, I’m going with it. This area is heavily timbered, Spirit Lake is in between me and the mountain, and the mountain is a mile away, the mountain ain’t gonna hurt me.” Law-enforcement officials were incensed by his refusal to evacuate because media representatives kept entering the restricted zone near the volcano to interview him, endangering themselves in the process. Still, Truman remained steadfast. “You couldn’t pull me out with a mule team. That mountain’s part of Truman and Truman’s part of that mountain.”

He believed he could survive the volcano if it erupted by seeking refuge in an abandoned mine shaft, but the lack of immediate warning of the oncoming eruption probably prevented him from escaping to the shaft before the pyroclastic flow reached his lodge (less than a minute after it began). On May 17, authorities attempted one final time to persuade Truman to leave, to no avail. To be fair, they had evacuated and let people go back several times, each time they anticipated the volcano would erupt. However, this time, the volcano erupted the next morning, and its entire northern flank collapsed. Truman was alone at his lodge with his 16 cats, and is presumed to have died in the eruption on May 18. He likely died of heat shock in less than a second, too quickly to register pain, before his body was nearly vaporized.

Those closest to him have stated that the mountain and the lake were his life. If he’d followed evacuation orders and then saw what the mountain did to his lake, it would have killed him anyway.

He has since been the subject of over 100 songs, several books, and his favorite actor even agreed to play him in the docudrama, St. Helens.

To date, there hasn’t been a more deadly or destructive volcano in the U.S. It wasn’t reopened for climbing until 1987 and it remained so until 2004 when renewed activity caused it to be closed yet again. In 2006 it was reopened and has been ever since.

Visitor Center

The visitor center holds all the information about this event, including a short film and a walkthrough that explain the events leading up to the eruption and of course, information about the eruption itself.

Just outside the visitor center, there’s a nice view of Mount St. Helens.

Mount St. Helens

From the visitor center, there’s a scenic drive to Mount St. Helens that will take a few hours, but there are views along the way and it’s a nice drive.

Afterwards, I stopped at Anthony’s, a restaurant right on the marina for some much craved sea food. Fresh salmon hit the spot and I even splurged outside of my normal water order and got the lemonade made with local berries. I hope to eat there again!

This volcano is still active and you can climb up to the top today. Who wants to go to the summit with me to check it out?

Side note: flying out of Seattle is always a pleasure. Look at these mountain views from the airplane window! The sun was setting as made my decent into Dayton, my new local airport. You can certainly notice the difference in land elevation!

At this point, I’ve spent so much time in Seattle, I can definitely give an all day tour of the area, so just let me know if you find yourself there and I’ll give you all the things to do! That’s not to say I know it all, so if there’s something I must do on my next visit, let me know!