Lawetlat'la*, Volcano St. Helen’s

*Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat "Mountain that smokes"

In March of 1980, I was flying back to Portland from a planetarium conference, the pilot diverted the airliner so we could see the black smudge of the first eruption on the slopes of Mount St. Helen’s. I realized that history was in the making, the mountain was now Volcano St Helen’s.

Upon getting back to OMSI I mobilized my Planetarium staff to prepare the story of Volcano St. Helen. We made arrangements with OMSI’s Aviation Committee to fly around and record the events as they happened. We asked people to send in their pictures... Our Volcano Production, “Volcano St Helen’s” opened at the end of June, 1980.

    In the Fall of 1980 I was hired as a consultant for the Architect, Spencer Associates that designed and built the public Volcano St. Helen’s Observatories for the USFS at Johnston Ridge and Coldwater.  USFS had originally planned to build only at Silver Lake about 40 miles from the Volcano and go no further. I helped convince the Architects and USFS to build facilities much closer at Coldwater (10 miles from the caldera) and Johnston’s Ridge (5 miles from the caldera)!

If you haven’t been plan go in 2027! The Johnston Ridge Observatory will re-open when repairs to the road caused by a landslide several years ago made passage to the Observatory impossible. More info can be found here... Johnston Ridge Observatory website

The Photos are arrange in the chronological order of the years I observed and visited Volcano St. Helen’s