        Snow and ice covered 
the top of Mount St. Helens. 
The sparkling waters of 
Spirit Lake nestled at its 
base. Trees and flowers grew 
on its slopes.  Deer and elk 
razed in the forest and 
meadows.  Birds sang.  
Tumbling streams crisscrossed
the mountain.  The streams 
formed rivers that flowed to 
the Pacific Ocean.  People 
hiked the mountain and 
enjoyed its peaceful 
wilderness. 
      
On may 18 1980, the sun rose
into a cloudless sky. The 
forest was unusually quiet. 
No wind stirred the leaves. 
The squirrels did not 
chatter, and the birds did 
not sing. Suddenly, the 
stillness was shattered; two
hugh earthquakes shook the 
mountain. Solid earth 
crumbled and gave way. A 
landslide plunged down the 
mountainside. Long cracks 
appeared in the ground.     
 Then it happened! Hot gases
trapped inside Mount St. 
Helens exploded violently. 
The entire north side of the
mountain blew apart!        
Hot ash, rock, and dirt shot
twelve miles high and formed
a dark cloud that filled the
sky. Day seemed to turn into 
night. Rocks and heavy 
clumps of mud rained down on
the forest below. A blizzard
of ash fell from the sky.   
   Ash fell on the slopes of
Mount St. Helens. In places 
it was as much as six feet 
deep. People and animals 
were buried. The ash looked 
like fine gray sand, but it 
had the odor of cement 
powder. Winds carried the 
gritty powder away from the 
volcano. It fell on trees 
and flowers, It fell on cars
and bridges.  There was 
enough ash to cover much of 
the state of Washington east
of Mount St. Helens.  A 
dusting even fell on Denver,
Colorado, a thousand miles 
away.        This violent 
explosion proved that Mount 
St. Helens was no ordinary 
mountain. It was a sleeping 
volcano that had just 
awakened.       The eruption
created a powerful shock 
wave.  In less than one 
minute the shock wave 
knocked down all the trees 
for miles around.  Millions 
of trees snapped at their 
bases and fell to the 
ground. It looked as though 
a giant hand had scattered 
toothpicks on the slopes.   
  Thunder rumbled above the 
mountain. Lightning flashed.
The lightning struck the 
ground and started many 
fires. Soon thousands of 
acres of the forest blazed.
       
Hot gases from the explosion
swept over fields of ice and
snow and down the 
mountainside. The extreme 
heat of the gases caused 
snow and ice to melt 
instantly. This water mixed 
with dirt from the 
landslide, falling ash, and 
the hot gases to form a wall
of boiling mud. The mud 
steamed and roared down the 
mountain and into the Toutle
River. There was so much mud
that it pushed the water 
over the river banks.       
Soon the river grew to many 
times its normal size. The, 
flood waters swept away 
bridges, uprooted trees, and
killed animals. Afterwards, 
the original narrow riverbed
no longer existed. Instead, 
many tiny streams cut 
through a newly formed 
landscape of gray mud.      
A second mudflow surged into
Spirit Lake. Half the lake 
was filled.  Mud, rocks, and 
fallen trees quickly piled 
up at one end. A dam two 
hundred feet high and more 
than a mile wide formed.    
   Water from the melting 
fields of snow and ice 
poured into Spirit Lake. The
dam stopped the water from 
flowing down the mountain. 
Within minutes the water 
level had risen one hundred 
feet behind the dam and 
continued to rise. There was
a danger that the dam would 
break. If it did, the 
backed-up water would flood 
the valley below Spirit 
Lake. The lives of fifty 
thousand people were 
threatened. Over the next 
few days, however, this 
danger lessened. The water 
in Spirit Lake slowly leaked
through the mud dam and 
flowed down the mountain.   
   This destructive eruption
greatly changed the shape of
the mountain. Mount St. 
Helens is no longer 9,677 
feet high, One seventh of 
its height was blasted away,
A new crater was formed 
where the peak used to be, 
Spirit Lake has almost 
disappeared. The outlines of
the hills and ridges of the 
mountain have changed 
forever.        The earth is
not quiet and stable. 
Quickly or slowly, it is 
changing all the time. 
Volcanoes are just one of 
the forces that build up or 
tear down mountain chains. 
The eruption of Mount St. 
Helens is one tiny event in 
the series of changes that 
have been taking place on 
earth for billions of years.

        Most of the people who
lived on the slopes, cut logs 
in the forests, and hiked 
along the trails of Mount St. 
Helens did not realize that 
the mountain would become an 
active volcano, After all, it 
had been quiet for 123 years. 
But many scientists were not 
surprised when the volcano 
came to life. In 1975, they 
had predicted that Mount St. 
Helens would erupt sometime 
during the next 25 years.     
  In March 1980, the warning 
signs began when a series of 
small earthquakes shook the 
mountain. Scientists set up 
several look-out posts and 
watched the mountain day and 
night. Even though they were 
fairly certain that it was 
getting ready to erupt, they 
could not predict when the 
eruption would occur. It could
be within a week, or it might 
not happen for several years. 
  
  The answer came on March 27,
1980. Suddenly, smoke blasted 
out the top of Mount St. 
Helens and mushroomed into the
sky. Near the top of the 
mountain appeared a huge 
crater and many large cracks, 
The volcano had awakened!     
 
Small eruptions continued for
more than a week. Each 
eruption spewed smoke, ash, 
and gas high into the, air. 
Mud slides rolled down the 
upper slopes of the mountain.
A second crater formed. 
Gradually the two craters 
became larger and joined into
one huge one.        The 
danger signals did not go 
away. Government officials 
watched the mountain closely.
They feared a more violent 
eruption that could hurt or 
kill anyone caught on the 
slopes of the volcano. The 
officials declared the area 
within fifteen miles of the 
peak a danger zone and asked 
all the people inside this 
zone to leave. People living 
on the mountain packed up 
their belongings and left. 
All the roads leading up the 
mountain were closed.      In
early April, scientists 
became excited by a new 
series of earthquakes. These 
were harmonic tremors-long, 
steady, mild movements in the 
earth. Harmonic tremors 
differ from the sharper 
bursts of other earthquakes. 
They occur when melted rock 
moves beneath the earth's 
surface. Scientists began to 
think that this melted rock 
was going to erupt from Mount
St. Helens.       A fairly 
calm period followed the 
harmonic tremors. From time 
to time ash and steam from 
small eruptions shot into the
air. No earthquakes, however,
shook the mountain. 
Scientists wondered whether 
the volcano was going back to
sleep. 
  
   Then, in late April, 
people became alarmed again. 
The north side of the 
mountain started to bulge. 
The mountain was swelling 
from the pressure of the 
melted rock moving toward the
surface. Scientists warned 
that the volcano could erupt 
with great force. If it did, 
glowing hot mud and ash could
reach as far down the 
mountain as Spirit Lake, four
thousand feet below the 
summit.      Mount St. Helens
was still not deserted. Even 
though the chances of a 
dangerous eruption seemed to 
increase daily, a team of 
scientists continued to watch
the volcano. Every day one or
more of the team climbed the 
slopes to gather information.
All the scientists knew that 
the erupting mountain could 
kill them. Yet they were 
willing to risk their lives 
to study a volcano in action. 
David Johnston spoke for all 
the scientists when he 
compared Mount St. Helens to 
"a dynamite keg with the fuse
lit."        By now, Mount 
St. Helens had become a 
tourist attraction. 
Sightseers came from far and 
near. Everyone-fathers, 
grandmothers, children-wanted
to see an active volcano. 
Again and again, the police 
tried to keep residents, 
sightseers, and loggers away. 
But some people did not 
really believe the volcano 
would erupt. They did not 
take these warnings 
seriously.   
   
Harry Truman was determined 
to stay. The eighty-three 
year-old man ran a lodge on 
Spirit Lake, at the base of 
the mountain. He had lived 
there for more than fifty 
years. Truman told reporters,
"No one knows more about this
mountain than Harry, and it 
don't dare blow up on him. ' 
Despite many attempts to 
convince Harry to leave his 
home, he refused.       Some 
property owners became angry 
when they were blocked from 
their homes and cabins on the
mountain. They worried more 
about thieves breaking into 
their homes than about the 
volcano destroying them. On 
Saturday, May 17, the state 
police took a group of these 
people to their cabins near 
Spirit Lake. The owners 
loaded their valuables into 
trucks and drove down the 
mountain. They got out just 
in time.       The next day, 
Mount St. Helens stopped 
being entertainment and 
became a gruesome nightmare. 
The bulging north face of the
mountain blew off. Most of 
the people on or near the 
mountain were killed,       
David Johnston was only five 
miles from the top of Mount 
St. Helens when it exploded. 
His excited cry crackled over
the radio waves: "Vancouver! 
Vancouver! This is it!" Then 
there was silence. Scientists 
in Vancouver, Washington, 
waited anxiously. But they 
never heard from David again.
He died doing the work he 
loved most. Harry Truman was 
also killed that day, along 
with his six-teen cats.      
 The mountain did not observe
the official boundary and 
roadblocks when it erupted. 
Even people in areas thought 
to be safe found themselves 
in grave danger.        
Thirty miles from the top of 
Mount St. Helens, six young 
adults had pitched their 
tents in a deserted 
campground. On the morning of
the eruption, the forest was 
unusually quiet. Only the 
sounds of the campers broke 
the stillness. Bruce Nelson, 
Sue Ruff, and Terry Crall 
were cooking breakfast. 
Suddenly they felt a burning 
wind on their faces. They 
looked up. A monstrous yellow
and black cloud was about to 
close in on them. Terry sped 
to the tent to alert Karen 
Varner. Bruce and Sue clung 
to each other in terror. 
Trees fell all around them. 
Poisonous gases choked them. 
Stones, hot ash, and clumps 
of mud rained down. The 
stones cut and bruised them. 
The ash and mud made them 
gag.         Frantically, 
Bruce and Sue dug themselves 
out.  The ash burned their 
hands. They called out to 
their friends. No answer came
from Karen and Terry. Logs 
and ash covered Karen's tent.
       
Bruce and Sue heard feeble 
cries from Brian Thomas and 
Dan Balch, the other two 
members of the group. They 
found Brian under a log. He 
seemed dazed and his hip was 
broken. He could only walk 
with help. Dan was seriously 
hurt. Severe burns from the 
hot ash covered his arms, 
hands, and legs. He was in 
shock and could not walk at 
all.       An old mine shack 
provided shelter and safety 
for Dan and Brian while Sue 
and Bruce went for help. For 
fifteen miles the two young 
people waded through deep ash
and climbed over fallen trees
as they searched for a way 
out of their waking 
nightmare. They could feel 
the heat of the ash through 
their shoes. After a time 
they met a sixty-year-old 
man. The three survivors sang
songs to cheer themselves up 
as they trudged away from the 
mountain.        Following 
tracks in the ash, rescuers 
in helicopters spotted the 
trio and carried them to 
safety. Soon another rescue 
team brought out Brian and 
Dan. Karen and Terry were 
found dead.        Roald 
Reiten and Venus Dergen were 
camping near the Toutle River
about twenty-three miles 
below Spirit Lake. On the 
morning of May 18, they slept
late. While they slept, the 
volcano erupted. Thousands of
trees fell into the river and
headed their way. A loud 
rumbling awakened the 
sleeping campers. They 
stumbled out of the tent. 
Logs jammed the river, and 
the water was rising rapidly.
Roald and Venus raced to the 
car. They were too late. 
Flood waters already covered 
the road. As Roald and Venus 
looked for another way out, a
wall of mud crashed through 
the forest and surged toward 
them. They scrambled onto the
roof of the car, but it was 
useless. The mud pushed the 
car into the river, They 
found themselves thrown into 
the hot, muddy water. Logs, 
clumps of mud, and pieces of 
train trestle swirled around 
them. Roald pulled himself up
onto a log. The logs trapped 
Venus in the water. She went 
under several times. Again 
and again Roald grabbed for 
her. Suddenly, a space opened
between the logs. Roald 
grabbed once more. This time 
he caught hold of Venus! He 
pulled her up onto the log 
with him.       The river 
carried Roald and Venus 
downstream. Several people 
spotted them and helped them 
out of the river.       Not 
everyone near the mountain 
that day had to be rescued. 
Vern Hodgson, like many 
others, brought his camera 
when he came to view Mount 
St. Helens. On the morning of
May 18, Vern set his camera 
up to take pictures of the 
snow-capped peak fifteen 
miles to the southwest. 
Suddenly, the distant 
mountainside began to slide. 
Smoke poured out into the 
sky. Vern snapped one picture
after another until he used 
up his film. Then he jumped 
into his van and drove away. 
He had not gone far before 
ash started to fall.       
Vern covered his mouth and 
nose with a towel so that he 
could breath. Every few 
minutes he stopped and got 
out of the van to clean the 
ash off the windshield. After
hours of slow driving, he 
finally reached his home. 
Vern had taken a perfect 
series of photographs of the 
eruption.        Many other 
people experienced the 
eruption of Mount St. Helens 
on May 18, 1980. At least 
forty-nine of them are dead 
or missing. The bodies of 
many of the victims have not 
been found and may be buried 
beneath the ash forever. 
Those who lived have their 
own stories to tell of escape
or rescue. For years to come,
friends and relatives will be
hearing stories of "how I 
survived the great volcanic 
eruption of 1980."

