30 Years Ago - May 18, 1980

It's not a great photo....but it sure brought back memories when I got it in an e-mail from my son, Chris this morning. The picture was taken from the deck of my home in Gresham, Oregon (south of the volcano)...probably at the time of a later eruption (there were several....and ongoing eruptions) of Mount St. Helens. I'm guessing that the ash plume in this picture is probably more steam than ash...because of its color. You can see what was left of the mountain (extreme left of the photo) looking more like a cloud caught on the distant hills, than a mountain.

I remember the day of the first, and most violent, eruption. The mountain had been threatening, with small plumes and puffs of steam and ash for weeks. There had been earthquakes on the mountain too...not big ones...but rumblings...occurring with greater and greater frequency in the weeks prior to the eruption. We were all aware that something big might happen. But no one, including geologists with the USGS, could predict with any certainty, what or when that something would occur.

I was standing at my kitchen window, looking out (I had the same view of the mountain from the window as from my deck where the photo was taken). I had my morning cup of coffee in my hand and I was talking to my Mom (in California) on the phone. I turned away from the window briefly, then turned toward it again. In the minute or two that my back was turned...the whole landscape had changed. All that I could say was "Oh my God!" Then I told my Mom what I was seeing. You've all seen photos and film footage of the eruption and its aftermath. Well...I saw it from my kitchen...and all I can tell you is that all the photos and film just don't compare to what it was to see the eruption in person. I can't even find words to describe what I saw and felt. It was everything at once.....Amazing. Unbelievable. Terrible. Fascinating. Even beautiful, in a strange way. I've never seen such force and power. Nature really put on a show...and I feel privileged to have been there to see it. And no...I never even thought of taking photos that morning or any other day during the mountain's most spectacular eruptions. I knew that there would be plenty of film used and shown...and I also knew that no picture that I could take would ever be as real to me as what I had actually seen.