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Volcanic Blast

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Two months earlier, the mountain began venting steam after being rattled by a 4.2-magnitude earthquake, and by the end of April a bulge had appeared on the northern slope. Geologists monitored the volcano closely, knowing that it could blow at any time -- which it soon did, with explosive force.

The lateral blast was so powerful that trees and vegetation in a six mile radius to the north were vaporized. The shock wave moved farther out, stripping trees of bark and branches and knocking their trunks to the ground like toothpicks. An avalanche of rocks, debris, snow, and ice surged down the mountain, and within minutes covered a 24-square-mile area hundreds of feet deep. Fifty-seven people lost their lives, including resort owner Harry R. Truman, who refused to evacuate.

The upward blast was just as intense. Fifteen minutes after the eruption, the ash plume reached 15 miles into the sky and was blown eastward. In just over an hour, Yakima was plunged into darkness. The cloud continued moving east, dumping ash everywhere. Travelers were forced off the highways, which caused tremendous problems in Ritzville, more than 200 miles away from the volcano. The ash cloud took three days to reach the East Coast and 15 days to girdle the globe.

Despite the devastation, ecological recovery has developed over time. Weyerhaeuser Company and the Forest Service replanted trees, but nature also took its course, and much of the flora returned at its own pace. The 1980 eruption provided a large-scale experiment that has taught scientists and land managers much about ecological disturbance and ecosystem management. In 1982, the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was created thanks to the efforts of Representative Don Bonker.

 Designed to Last

In 1895 the University of Washington moved from downtown Seattle to its present location, which at the time was heavily forested and undeveloped. The campus took root on the northern section of the property, but as the university grew its regents sought ways to develop the rest of the grounds without breaking their budget. They found their golden opportunity when Seattle began making plans to host a World's Fair.

UW supporters like professor Edmond Meany advocated using the campus for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition fairgrounds in order to gain new buildings and to clear and grade the forested acreage for future use. The regents agreed, and on May 17, 1907, they approved John C. Olmsted's plan for the grounds.

Olmsted had arrived in Seattle four years earlier to design city parks, and the A-Y-P project meshed perfectly with his master plan for expansive parks and boulevards throughout the city. But with only two years before the fair's opening there was plenty of grading, landscaping, and building to be done.

The A-Y-P was a huge success, as was Olmsted's layout for it. On May 18, 1915, the UW regents approved a new plan by architect Carl F. Gould, who built on Olmsted's legacy while adding important changes of his own. The campus has undergone many changes since then, but the Olmsted "footprint" can still be seen today, more than a century later.