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 ice cream, our Mount Fuji.
And then, 30 years ago next Tuesday, all hell broke loose.
2 thoughts on “Mount St. Helens: Our icon, our memories”
St. Helens was indeed so beautiful prior to the 1980 eruption. I have fond memories of innertubing above the parking lot at its north base. Years before it blew its top, my dad and several of his friends occasionally climbed to its summit. They marveled at the views of Spirit Lake, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount Hood. It made for an exhausting but exhilarating day.
As for May 18, 1980, I’ll never forget the ash cloud that rose so high that day, or the ash dumping that my hometown of Chehalis received a week later.
Some of my best childhood memories were made at Spirit Lake and Mt. St. Helens.
I attended YMCA summer camp at Spirit Lake for several years. I learned how to swamp (and un-swamp) a canoe there, and I still remember the aroma of 5 days worth of slop being dumped over my head when I was crowned queen of my cabin and then pushed ceremoniously out of my parade canoe and into the icy waters that were so clear that you could count the rocks on the bottom, 20 feet below. I remember greasing ourselves up with lard for an early morning swim to Harmony Falls. I remember the endless hikes and the old abandoned mine of fools’ gold that we were able to explore. Oh, and the mess hall. That beautiful mess-hall/lodge built of old-growth timber, which we’d have to run around if we were caught with our elbows on the table during a meal. “Teresa-teresa – young and able, get your elbows off the table! Round the mess hall you must go, you must go, you must go, round the mess hall you must go, don’t be lazy!” The hall had a huge bronze plaque immortalizing all of those Harmony Falls swimmers past…immortalizing them, that is, until May 18, 1980.
30 years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and even harder to believe that it’s been 40 years and more since I was a camper there.
I felt privileged to see geology in action when it erupted, but I still mourn the fact that my own children would never be able to experience the joy that I did in the shadows of Mt. Loowit. I’ve taught them many of the wonderful camp songs I learned there, but how I wish they could’ve learned them around a big campfire, on the shores of Spirit Lake, amongst their fellow-campers, just as I did.
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