April 15, 2010 in Outdoors, City, Idaho, Region

Share your Mount St. Helens memories

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FILE photo

Cover of May 18, 1981, special section commemorating the first anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption.
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On Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. It sent a mushroom-shaped cloud of ash high into the sky, which drifted east and fell on the Inland Northwest.

If you were living in the region then, and would like to share your memories of that day, please e-mail them to breakingnews@spokesman.com. You’re welcome to send pictures to that e-mail address or by mail to 999 W. Riverside Ave., Spokane, WA 99201.

Please write your mailing address on the back of the picture if you’d like it returned. We’ll collect those reminiscences online and publish some in print on the 30th anniversary of the mountain’s eruption.

Six comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  PhiltheBibliophil on April 15 at 9:06 p.m.

  God help us all when Mt. Rainier goes!

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  MtnDesertMama on April 16 at 9:36 a.m.

  I was almost 15 when Mount St Helens blew. I remember we were leaving a Job’s Daughters Installation Ceremony and we all commented on how dusty the air smelled. We didn’t get a lot of ash in Colville but enough to see and smell.

  I also remember my brother coming home from Pullman with a bucket full of ash for us since we didn’t have enough to sweep up.

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  maria on April 18 at 1:42 p.m.

  I was in Seattle and got a call from my boyfriend’s brother in Pullman. They’re Catholic and he thought the world was coming to an end. He called from a pay phone and hadn’t seen the news on tv. He was screaming frantically about this huge black cloud of dust. We turned on the tv and saw the mountain had blown. We gave him the news, then headed down to the mountain to get a closer look. We were turned back near Kid Valley. I saw the Toutle River steaming and clogged with debris, trees, houses, you name it. Unbelievable. Really scary.

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  bdr on April 28 at 10:24 a.m.

  I have a cabin up there and enjoy the loowit trail.
  The elk are easy to see on the large lahar site.
  Pines trail past the ape cave on #81 at the tree line offers a breath taking site, where melting snow from the blast carved a 500 foot deep ravine 1/2 mile wide NOW THAT TAKES A BIG SURGE OF WATER TO CARVE IT THAT DEEP.

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  Northern_kid on April 28 at 1:59 p.m.

  Was a freshman at WSU. It was a Sunday. The sky went dark just before noon(golden glow to the south) and then the ash started to fall. It was like snow. There probably about 1- 1.5 inches of ash on the ground. We were stuck in the dorm (Stephenson South) for 4-5 days and classes were cancelled. “Siliconosis” (if I remember correctly) - damage to the lungs - was a concern so nobody went out side except those from other dorms with closed-down cafeterias. I remember one student using a Budweiser 12-pack box with hanky as a guard against breathing the ash. Karl Marks across the Pullman-Moscow Highway sold 180+ cases of beer to students in the Stephenson complex (they ran out). Mount St. Helens blowing up was the fitting end to a crazy year at WSU.

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  kathleenj on May 14 at 11:55 p.m.

  WHAT AN OMINUS DAY THAT WAS!!! I WAS ABOUT 3 MONTHS PREGNANT AND MY HUSBAND AND I WENT OUT TO AN AREA AROUND THE ST JOE RIVER. WE WERE HIKING AROUND A CREEK AND CAME ACROSS A DEAD BEAVER. I GOT THE MOST DREADFUL FEELING ABOUT IT AND DEMANDED WE GO BACK HOME. WELL, THE RADIO IN OUR CAR WAS ON THE FRITZ SO WE HAD NO IDEA ST HELENS HAD BLOWN, AND AS WE TRAVELED BACK NORTH TO THE VALLEY THERE WAS THIS LINE OF DARKNESS IN THE SKY AND AS WE DROVE UNDER IT, IT BECAME A WASH OF ASH AND WE COULDN’T SEE 10 FEET IN FRONT OF US. WE DROVE AT ABOUT 10 MPH. WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT HAD HAPPENED. AT THE TIME I WORKED AT A PIZZA PLACE IN THE VALLEY AND THE CREW THAT EVENING HAD LEFT THE AIR CONDITIONING ON AND THE NEXT MORNING EVERY INCH OF THE PLACE WAS COATED IN ASH.