Mount St Helens, May 18, 1980

When I was 8, it seemed that the entire year was filled with news from Mount St Helens. All spring we heard that the mountain was going to erupt, that there were rumblings and shakings and that the beast was awakening. And on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, it woke with a vengance. Even 150 miles to the north we felt the eruption...our first thought was that it was a larger than normal sonic boom from the local Boeing plant. But my dad flipped on his police scanner and it was announced on the air.

Below is a shot of the mountain the day before the eruption, and a view from the same location, weeks later. The two things I remember most were the man (Harry Truman) who wouldn't leave his home on the mountain that he shared with his precious kitties, and that I was pretty disappointed that the ash headed every direction but north. And I thought ash would be cool. In hindsight, we were spared a lot of damage and work.





There is a creation museum by the mountain that is operated by my childhood pastor and his lovely wife, Lloyd and Doris Anderson. Check out their 7 Wonders website for some great resources on creation, geology and how what happened at Mount St Helens in a very short period of time blows some evolutionary theories out of the water.

And here is an amazing video of the eruption.