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From Digital Archives: Iconic WA landscapes

From Digital Archives: Iconic WA landscapes

Elephant Head Rock on the Washington coast. There’s no denying that Washington has many beautiful places and a wide variety of stunning landscapes, from rugged ocean beaches and evergreen forests to jagged, glacier-clad mountains, deep blue lakes and sagebrush-strewn deserts. Our state’s amazing beauty has attracted photographers for years — that’s evident when you scan through the collections of photos on our Digital Archives website. These photos below are found in a collection includes 256 glass lantern slides taken between…

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Remembering Mount St. Helens & May 18 eruption

Remembering Mount St. Helens & May 18 eruption

(Photo courtesy of Washington State Library.) For many Washingtonians, the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, is one of those moments forever ingrained in collective memory. Saturday is the 33rd anniversary of the iconic mountain blowing her top. We  feature photos from our State Archives and State Library showing how the mighty mountain and nearby Spirit Lake were popular recreational spots in the years before the devastating eruption. The last photo shows the mountain sending ash thousands…

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Mount St. Helens: Eve of destruction

Mount St. Helens: Eve of destruction

How we loved this Northwest playground – boating, fishing, camping, swimming, hiking, climbing, scouting.  This playful image, from around 1960, is from your State Archives. And, of course, Tuesday will be the 30th anniversary of the mighty eruption that transformed this serene and gentle landscape forever. The eruption touched off the greatest landslide ever, ripping off a large part of that enormous dome, blowing out 3.7 billion cubic yards of mountaintop and spewing ash that girdled the globe a number of…

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Mount St. Helens: Our icon, our memories

Mount St. Helens: Our icon, our memories

There has always been something magical and iconic about Mount St. Helens, shown here in all her glory in a rare 1925  photo by Asahel Curtis, from our State Archives lantern slide collection.  Many of us grew up swimming and canoeing on Spirit Lake, attending summer camp, picnicking or tent camping, hiking the wildflower meadows, or scaling the conical peak. Rainier may be The Mountain, but there’s always been a special connection with St. Helens, that snow-clad bowl of vanilla…

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