Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Mount Saint Helens - America's Deadliest Eruption
44 years after it's eruption, Noodles and I camp at the base of the - still active - Mount Saint Helens.
We explore the tales of Harry Truman, the lodge owner who famously refused to leave despite the looming danger, and David Johnston, a devoted volcanologist committed to monitoring the volcano and saving lives.
We also make a case for why this iconic volcano, nestled within the majestic Cascade Range, remains a must-see destination for nature and history lovers.
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40475407?searchText=mount+saint+helens&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dmount%2Bsaint%2Bhelens%26utm_source%3Dgoogle%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A040e395c0e2de6e31a1e68973019e61b&seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40490705?readnow=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/cascades-volcano-observatory/legacy-david-johnston
https://www.columbian.com/news/2013/dec/26/mount-st-helens-eruption-blackburn-lost-roll-film/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160320-mount-st-helens-eruption-logging-volcano-olson-ngbooktalk
https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/mount-st-helens
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/giffordpinchot/learning/nature-science/?cid=fseprd734630#:~:text=On%20the%20morning%20of%20May,in%20a%20powerful%20lateral%20blast.
https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st.-helens/science/1980-cataclysmic-eruption
https://thatoregonlife.com/2022/05/mt-st-helens-eruption-images/
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/05/mount-st-helens-eruption-witnesses-recall-terror-awe-when-mountain-exploded-40-years-ago.html
https://www.seattlemet.com/travel-and-outdoors/2020/05/a-timeline-of-mount-st-helens
https://unapologeticnerd.com/2015/05/18/he-died-as-he-lived-david-a-johnston/
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/05/the-eruption-of-mount-st-helens-in-1980/393557/
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Cruising down the street. I wonder where this road would lead so many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh Noon Dolls, what do you see? Back Road, odyssey, vancouver, vancouver.
Speaker 1:This is it the last words of volcanologist David A Johnston the day of the eruption, may 18th 1980. Mount St Helens erupts with the force of 440 million tons of TNT. Lakes are buried, wildlife consumed by fire and ash. 57 people die. It remains the deadliest and most powerful volcanic eruption in US history. And most powerful volcanic eruption in US history.
Speaker 1:44 years later, noodles and I camp at the base of the still-active volcano. We're here along the south slope of Mount St Helens. The sun is about to set. Throughout the day, we hiked along streams, listened to birds, worked below healthy tall trees. Anybody could be forgiven for thinking that nothing bad ever happened here. Truly, it's beautiful, but something did happen, and Noodles and I are planning to spend the next few days exploring everything that makes the story of Mount St Helens worth telling the people Its history, the strange science behind its explosion and its surprising I think significance today.
Speaker 1:For now, though, let's start with a simple, simple question what is Mount St Helens? Long ago, it was called Lualwala Claw, by surrounding tribes, the Smoking Mountain. It was, and most times considered to be a potentially dangerous presence. Potentially dangerous through its renaming to Mount St Helens in 1790. Potentially dangerous throughout the early 19th century and quite literally dangerous during its 1842 eruption and ensuing lesser eruptions until 1857, when, suddenly, helens goes back to sleep, becoming once again, whether acknowledged or not by the surrounding people, simply potentially dangerous Once more. Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence. Herman Bull, australian Mountaineer.
Speaker 1:As part of the expansive Cascade Mountain Range stretching from Northern California to Southern British Columbia, mount St Helens, located in Southern Washington, erupts with a peculiar sporadic enthusiasm. Mount Hood to the south and Rainier to the north, both technically active volcanoes, pale in comparison. After Mount St Helens' sudden silence in 1857, peace returns. In time. It becomes yet another beautiful Pacific Northwest mountain, a place to retreat to, to relax, to get away for a while. Spirit Lake at the foot of Mount St Helens becomes a particularly popular vacation destination. But well, the birds chirp, the campers relax, the years pass, a very awake volcano blooms, slowly building its anger. There's no harm in hoping for the best, as long as you're prepared for the worst. Stephen King.
Speaker 1:Mount St Helens, it turns out, never stays quiet for long. In the early spring of 1980, small earthquakes around Mount St Helens signal coming danger. Generally, there are two responses to any impending threat or danger measured caution or willful ignorance. We look at two stories that embody these diametrically opposed viewpoints. No, that mountain will never hurt me.
Speaker 1:Harry Truman, owner of the Mount St Helens Lodge. Not to be confused with the former president of the same name, harry Truman has owned a lodge in the shadow of Mount St Helens for decades. His many summers along the shores of the beautiful Spirit Lake are repetitious, uneventful, reliably predictable. So when the very real threat of an eruption presents itself in the spring of 1980, truman proves to be anything but reactive. In fact, he would soon be known across the nation as the man who refused to leave as the earth shakes. Throughout the spring of 1980, truman, throughout the spring of 1980, truman sits at the shore of his well-loved Spirit Lake. Gentle waves embrace his feet as more and more flee the area. I just can't believe they're paying me to do this. David Johnston and reported calls to his parents.
Speaker 1:David Johnston is a volcanologist with the US Geological Survey. When Hellens starts to stir after 100 years of quiet, johnston age 30, knows the importance of closely monitoring such a potentially dangerous volcano. As such, he is one of the first scientists to arrive to the volcano in March of 1980. Specializing in volcanic gases which can help predict activity, johnston routinely delves inside Helen's summit crater to monitor Mount St Helens, despite the clear dangers it presents. Doing so, he knows, can be invaluable in expanding regulations around the potentially catastrophic volcano. Doing so, he knows, can save lives Throughout the spring. When, against his expectations, he doesn't see the high levels of sulfur dioxide and other gases that aid in predicting what the volcano will do, he becomes frustrated In his heart.
Speaker 1:Johnston knows something is coming. Every day he sees it with his own eyes. He sees the volcano's activity intensifying, earthquakes become more regular around the area, but still the data he collects doesn't reflect his daily observations. But regardless of this, he persists gathering data and he continues to warn the public of the potential danger of Helens. But he nor anybody could have known that the mountain was increasingly waterlogged, which impacts the data anybody attempts to gather. And this clog inside the volcano will lead to one of the most unique, large-scale and deadly eruptions in US history, devastating the surrounding landscape and killing both Truman and Johnston. Both Truman and Johnston Same ending. Different paths taken to get there. We'll see exactly how both stories end, but for now, johnston gathers data to save lives. Truman sits at his lake downplaying the dangers of the volcano in his backyard. Regardless, the eruption is coming.
Speaker 1:I remember very, very vividly how quickly darkness descended as the ash cloud came from the west. Diane Bell Miller, a Spokane Washington resident, on May 18th 1980. Six hours away from Helen's. We're driving now from the south side, where we were, to the north side of the volcano. It's about a two hour drive, something like that, which really puts into perspective the scale of this. This eruption was just massive, and what's unique about it, other than the astronomical amount of energy released in that first initial blast, is where the initial blast comes from. So typically with a volcano, when it erupts it blows straight up, straight forward. Right, we've all seen a science fair volcano. But with helens, the magma and coexisting pressure rise kind of asymmetrically, not straight up, and when the pressure becomes unsustainable it erupts also asymmetrically. So what you have is tons and tons of rock and magma and material shooting out sideways like a cannon. And the trajectory of this cannon blast was north where we're headed now. From what I've heard, it's where the most clear signs of anything having happened can be found.
Speaker 1:I was researching this a bit last night in the van and I came across a video of the moments before the eruption. I'll post it in the show notes, but it might be the craziest thing I've ever seen on video. So what happens in the video is this? What looks like literally half of Mount St Helens just slides down the mountain, and when I saw this I knew I had to look into it more. So what happens is this? A 5.1 magnitude earthquake, well below the volcano, triggers literally the largest landslide in recorded history, and that's the video that I saw. And this is where it gets crazy, because, with this sudden decrease in weight, the pressure that had been building up all spring for years and years within Helen's is finally able to shoot out with, as we'll see, terrible consequences, and it's this chain reaction of events that makes Helen such a memorable and devastating natural disaster. The earthquake triggers the landslide which enables the eruption, which causes floods, forest fires, ash in the sky for miles, 57 deaths. This is what we're driving to see what's left of the summit and the impact that this lateral blast had on the northern landscape of Mount St Helens. Here's my question now, though. The eruption was inevitable, it was going to happen, but what about the 57 people that died? What, if anything, could have been done to prevent this massive loss of human life?
Speaker 1:In response to the looming threat, the Washington government, under Governor Dixie Ray, established a red zone marking a no-entry point. That's five miles around the summit crater of Hellens generally, but this would not nearly be enough For one. This red zone, rather than circling around Hellens, completely fluctuates around private properties in the area, often belonging to logging companies reluctant to stop operations for the day. So the limits, then, were roughly based on property rights, not scientific recommendations. And this larger argument in so many ways mirrors the differences between Johnston warning about the impending threat and Truman sitting idly at his lodge.
Speaker 1:Throughout the spring, johnston and many scientists urged the government for a wider, more safe, more comprehensive red zone, and throughout that same spring, truman refuses to leave Spirit Lake, which is well within the already small red zone. And two things happen. This refusal sparks interest across the nation. He becomes somewhat of a folk hero, but it also angers those that have already left the red zone. If he can stay there illegally, why did I have to leave in the first place? If he can stay there illegally, why did I have to leave in the first place? This push and pull between the desire for public safety and a general stubbornness to acknowledge the coming threat will prove to paralyze any chance to expand, retract or move the five-mile red zone established, even without the volcano unexpectedly erupting sideways, further increasing the blast zone. I'll add, the devastation will be much wider spread than even Johnston, with all his caution expects.
Speaker 1:Still, johnston sits at his camp monitoring Mount St Helens, just five miles north of the crater the morning of the eruption. That same morning, truman sits at his lodge just three miles north of the crater, standing here at an overlook well north of the mountain, about eight miles away, three miles from the edge of the red zone in 1980. Even here, even eight miles away, I still feel close. It's just wild and there's no simpler way of describing what I see. The summit is gone. Half of what the volcano should look like simply just isn't there the amount of energy, pent-up energy needed to make this change. It's just hard to wrap your head around. And from here, where I'm standing, I can also see where Johnston camped, right at the edge of what would have been the red zone.
Speaker 1:Five miles from the mountain and beyond that, where he was camped is Spirit Lake, which is where Truman would have been Standing here looking at all this. This is what is most striking to me by May 8th or 9th, the north side of Helens, where we're looking now, had a bulge, and this bulge was growing five feet daily from the building pressure. In geological terms, this is absolutely wild, and I think about Johnston looking at this, as he was sitting way too close and knew what could and will happen. Day after day, he looked at this growing time bomb and continued to work, not purely or at all, even out of professional interest, but by all accounts, everything that I've read he did this. He continued to do this to protect people from what he knew and what he saw was going to happen. And let's remember this, johnston is one of the main reasons that a red zone was created at all.
Speaker 1:As insufficient as the five-mile radius ended up being, the death toll undoubtedly could have been much higher. 24 hours before the eruption, a report, championed in part by Johnston, was put on Washington Governor Wray's desk. This report contained a proposal to expand the red zone, particularly in the West, which is where most deaths ended up occurring outside, where the government deemed unsafe. Despite Governor Wray's later insistence that all deaths occurred inside the established five-mile red zone, in reality, only three of the 57 deaths on May 18th occurred inside this red zone. All the proposal needed that day was the governor's signature, but it was never given. That day was the governor's signature, but it was never given. The day before the eruption, governor Wray sat watching a parade. The report sat unread on her desk and by the time she sat down to read it, possibly sign it, it was too late.
Speaker 1:The volcano erupts, the greatest landslide in recorded history. An energy release equal to a detonated hydrogen bomb. Floods, forest fires, miles of ash shoot up into the air, covering states, ecosystems destroyed. True chaos ensues for the next nine hours. The initial blast travels at 670 miles per hour, extending its destruction 19 miles north of the crater. In addition, snow melts, creating rushing lahars spreading around the mountain six miles out. Most immediately, nearly everything within eight miles of Mount St Helens becomes unrecognizable A wasteland. Any map made before the eruption Useless. The entirety of Spirit Lake, along with Harry Truman, is entombed in ash. Johnston, who is directly in the volcano's lateral blast zone, breathes his last scorching breath. Fifty-five others perish. The world is impermanent. The eruption of Mount St Helens showed how quickly and drastically things can change. Yet we still can be good stewards of the things we love. Steve Olson Eruption the untold story of Mount St Helens.
Speaker 1:Having gone around Mount St Helens for the last couple days learning about the eruption, the events leading up to it, I'm sitting here driving away trying to think about what can be learned, or what I learned at least, in doing this. Here's what I think. We have two examples Truman, who chooses to ignore what might be coming. Truman, who chooses to ignore what might be coming, and Johnston, who confronts what he sees is coming. Both of them die. Here's my question Do their respective choices matter if the end result is the same? For myself, thinking about it, I'd rather be Johnston in a situation acknowledging threats and helping others face them. Maybe what we have to learn from this is, when something is definitely going to happen, it's best to accept it's coming and be proactive and compassionate to yourself and others until it comes. If you see what's coming, downplay its approach and sit at your lake. Who would you have helped along the way, including yourself, right? Do I think Truman had a right to stay on his private property, sure, but in doing so he downplays the severity of this terrible situation. This action further strengthens this already growing, already strong resistance to the small, inadequate red zone I don't know Makes you think about which of the two you'd rather be. I'll say this Driving away from Helen's green on either side of me today. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:In the decades following the eruption, life returns Faster in many cases than expected. The area around Mount St Helens is now the most biologically diverse in Washington state. The now named Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument is dedicated to volcanic research, recreation and education. To volcanic research, recreation and education in the area proves to be invaluable in the study of the recovery of landscapes after volcanic eruptions, although the landscape will never be the same as it was before the eruption. Life around Mount St Helens goes on 44 years after that fateful May 18th day. As my dog and I walk the trails below Helens, the stories of Truman, johnston and the mountain itself echo throughout the valley. To stop then and to look up at this scarred volcano in southern Washington is to look into the past, hopefully absorb its lessons, its stories, its warnings, and then to walk forward with a renewed respect toward the ever-present, uniquely awake Mount St Helens. It's Noah here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of Backroad Odyssey.
Speaker 1:A couple things, first off.
Speaker 1:Why should you visit Mount St Helens today? Apart from hiking trails in proximity to Portland, which is an easy day trip, that's what I would recommend. I'll say this standing on any overlook north, especially of the volcano, is a truly, truly unique experience. To see the scale of what happened in person and then to know stories like Truman's and Johnston's while standing there is itself worth a trip. It's also relevant, I think, to see and respect what very much could happen in the Cascades, rainier Hood Adams, not in a depressing, morbid way, but really to gain respect and appreciation for the beauty and almost independence of the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, specifically the Cascade mountain range.
Speaker 1:To go to Helens is to recognize that they own themselves. We're just visitors. For me, that's what a visit to Mount St Helens provides. With that said, if you enjoyed this episode, if you enjoy back road Odyssey, taking the time to write the show, to review the show, genuinely helps us continue to do what we're doing and to grow, to put the amount of work we'd like to into each episode. Really appreciate your time. Hope you enjoy it. Be good to each other. Where to next?
