This date in PNW history - May 18, 1980

[herr_oberst]

Eruption.

[ramonesfreak]

i was 8. i remember like it was yesterday.

[WPOZZZ]

I have some of that ash as a souvenir.

[wdfifteen]

Cool video. I remember. It was all over the news but I didn’t know it went on for weeks. They say the sky was darker here in Ohio a few weeks later, but I don’t recall that (I was newly in love and we were spending a lot of time indoors.).

[ramonesfreak]

the Minute by Minute documentary (now on youtube) is interesting

[masraum]

It was just a coincidence, but I visited Mt St Helens 20 years later almost to the day (I think I was 4-5 days early). I went back in the fall of 2018.

The experience the first time that I went was amazing. I was awestruck by what I saw especially since it was 20 years later. Even 38.5 years later in 2018, it was still impressive.

[Nostril Cheese]

I was 2. I dont remember it. Been up there several times though.

Was it true that you couldnt hear the blast in Portland?

[fanaudical]

I was 10 and in SW Washington state, well upwind. Found a big chunk of pumice in the front lawn the next day...

[Jeff Higgins]

I was 13 days into my budding career in aerospace at a famous local manufacturer. Since I was the FNG at the time, I was working nights. I was outside on a friend's back deck with a beer in my hand when we all saw the rising plume. It took awhile but, yes, we could hear it - all the way up in Bellevue, just across Lake Washington from Seattle.

The next day all of my German aunts, uncles, cousins, and grand parents were calling to see if we were still alive. The wind blew it all mostly east, over our Cascade range, so we were fine. The resultant flooding was a hundred miles south of us. We had "front row seats", but remained entirely safe through the whole thing. Pretty surreal stuff. My room mate and I had stood on its summit about 18 months prior...

[island911]

Took some good pictures there 18 years ago...

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/120932-scwdp-rr2003-muhahahahaha.html

[LWJ]

I was 14. Living in Portland.

I made an absolute MINT cleaning ash from gutters that year.

Super cool follow up? I climbed to the summit and looked in around 2004. The cone was growing.

[oldE]

Almost a week after the eruption I went into our yard and found a light dusting of volcanic ash covering our '73 Torino. Amazing to think that ash had been carried across the continent by the winds.

Best
Les

[Seahawk]

Love the video.

I was finishing my undergraduate degrees in the Bay Area.

I have flown over St. Helens twice, once in 1986 on a cross-country from San Diego to Seattle and again in 1996 or so delivering Blackhawks to the Oregon National Guard...little bit of a jog right

The difference in vegetation in 10 years was pretty neat to see.

The crewman took pictures in 1986. We are still friends. I need to see if he has digitized the photos.

[GH85Carrera]

One of my local buddies was a real hustler for making money. Always legal stuff, but anything that he could do to make some coin was open.

His brother lived in Portland then and shipped him a box of ash that was everywhere. My buddy was dating a chick that worked at a day care and had plenty of old baby-food bottles. He would soak the jars in water overnight, to clean them up enough. Then fill them with ash from the eruption. His mom had a label maker, so he labeled the jars and sold them for $10 bucks each. He did not get rich, but he made several hundred bucks over his costs.

We visited the area in 2005 and the damage was clear, but the regrowth was amazing.

[jcwade]

Pictures taken 8 years later.
No parking lot, you had to hike in to get above Spirit Lake.
Or, you could fly in.

[Racerbvd]