With a few exceptions, full citations for books, scholarly journal articles, and government reports appear in the bibliography on page 265, while full bibliographic information for newspaper articles, websites, magazine articles, court records, annual reports, videos, and other sources of information is provided in the following source notes. Quotations in the text without a source note are from conversations.
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text. Please bookmark your page before following links.
PROLOGUE
ix Earthquakes were shaking the volcano: Daily News and Journal-American, 20.
x In a 1976 magazine article: Tom Wolfe, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening,” New York Magazine, August 23, 1976, 29.
x “Will the last person”: Luis, 68.
xi Though hurricanes and tornadoes: Harris, 74.
xi The last earthquake: US Geological Survey, “Deaths from U.S. Earthquakes.” Annual updates are available at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/us_deaths.php.
xi It was the single most powerful natural disaster: Jeff Masters, “Hurricane Sandy’s Huge Size: Freak of Nature or Climate Change?” Available at http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/archive.html?year=2012&month=11.
xi one of the largest landslides: Voight et al., 347.
xii On August 24 in the year 79 CE: Scarth, 56.
xiii “It was not the darkness”: Ibid., 79–80.
xiv Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Ficken, The Forested Land, xiv.
xiv “The forests of America”: John Muir, “The American Forests,” Atlantic Monthly, August 1997, 145.
xv William Boeing dropped out of Yale: Verhovek, 25.
xv Before 1980, incomes: Noah, 25.
xv Union membership peaked in 1979: Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson. 2003. “Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 56 (2): 352.
xv The year 1980 saw the highest divorce rate: The Historical Statistics of the United States. Millennial Edition, vol. 1 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 689.
xv The release of carbon dioxide: The Earth System Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides information on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. See http://www.esrl.noaa.gov.
xv In 1979, Bill Gates: Manes and Andrews, 37–49.
xv In 1982, Howard Schultz: Schultz, 90.
xv In 1983, Costco: The corporate history is available at www.costco.com/about.html.
xvi A few years after that, Jeff Bezos: Stone, 29.
xvi Today, those four companies: Starbucks and Paccar, which manufactures trucks in the Seattle area, have about the same revenues, with Nordstrom, Weyerhaeuser, and Expeditors International of Washington the only other Washington State companies on the Fortune 500. Boeing, to the state’s chagrin, is now headquartered in Chicago.
xvi “Sooner or later”: Jerry Adler, “Seattle Reigns,” Newsweek, May 20, 1996.
xvii The Limits to Growth report: Meadows et al.
xvii In about 1980 the first articles: Steve Olson, “Computing Climate,” Science 82, May 1982, 52–60.
xvii the nation went through a brief frenzy: Ehrlich et al.
PART 1: THE LAND
3 At 3:47 in the afternoon: Endo et al., 93.
4 Then she entered the results: Tom Griffin, “Gates’ Way,” Columns: The University of Washington Alumni Magazine, September 2004, 27.
4 He looked more like a lumberjack: Michael Lienau, The Fire Below Us, Remembering Mount St. Helens, A Dramatic Documentary, Global Net Productions, 1995.
4 “This is an extremely dangerous place”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 8.
4 Dave Johnston was an unusual choice: Allan Brettman, “This Is It,” Longview Daily News, May 27, 1995.
6 “There is no question”: Thompson, 38.
6 A blackened crater: Christiansen and Peterson, 18.
7 hundreds of loggers: Jones, 102.
7 “The mountain is blowing”: Don Bundy, “Eruptions Small Deal to Loggers,” Portland Oregonian, March 31, 1980.
7 “There’s no concern”: Lew Pumphrey, “Weyco Crews Evacuate, Return to Work,” Longview Daily News, March 28, 1980.
7 Malone was too busy: Thompson, 39.
8 Johnston was well aware: Associated Press, “Geologists’ Kin Delay Sad Visit,” Eugene Register-Guard, May 18, 1981.
8 “We just don’t know”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 8.
10 It was one of the largest wood-products businesses: The Weyerhaeuser Company, Tacoma, Washington, 1980 Annual Report.
10 It owned: Ibid.
10 On the basis of its extensive timber holdings: David Ammons, “Weyerhaeuser Grows Trees and Just Grows,” Seattle Times, October 20, 1975.
10 Since becoming president: Robert Mottram, “Weyerhaeuser . . . Impresses Friends,” Tacoma Tribune, July 14, 1978.
11 He had diversified: The Weyerhaeuser Company, Tacoma, Washington, 1980 Annual Report.
11 He drove himself to work: Chet Skreen, “George Weyerhaeuser: Extrovert with a Very Private Core,” Seattle Times, March 2, 1980.
11 For vacation: Thomas J. Murray, “The Mover at Weyerhaeuser,” Dun’s, April 1973, 60.
11 Weyerhaeuser had been a boxer: Robert Cantwell, “The Shy Tycoon Who Owns 1/640th of the U.S.” Sports Illustrated, August 18, 1969, 54.
11 “There is a quiet power”: Laura Parker, “Timber Baron Wields a Quiet, Patient Power,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 29, 1983.
11 The housing market was collapsing: Stephen H. Dunphy, “Housing Industry: From Mere Slowdown to a Depression,” Seattle Times, April 17, 1980.
12 He could lay off more employees: Al Watts, “Weyerhaeuser: Good News . . . and Bad,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 18, 1980.
12 It wasn’t as if: George H. Weyerhaeuser, “Accent on Regeneration,” American Forests, January 1973, 23.
13 “This is not for us”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 214.
13 “the best of the S.O.B.’s”: John G. Mitchell, “Best of the S.O.B.’s,” The Audubon Society Magazine, September 1974, 49.
15 From Weyerhaeuser’s redbrick mansion: Rock Island County: “Where the River Runs West,” vol. 1 (Moline: The Dispatch and the Rock Island Argus, 2003).
15 At forty-five, Weyerhaeuser: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 6.
16 “commenced to dance”: Healey, 97.
16 In the spring of 1880, Rock Island: Elsner, 6.
16 On the way to his mill: Quayle and Simpson, passim.
16 Their lumberyard, along with its associated mills: Urie, cover illustration.
17 engaged in a fierce competition: Healey, 80.
17 “When I first saw”: Hill, 14.
17 they muttered about “aliens”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 44.
18 But the Chippewa Falls lumbermen refused: Fries, 141.
18 “By 1879 the Chippewa Basin”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 69.
19 “I have so many friends”: Hill, 15.
19 He was born on November 21: Healey, 3.
19 “Probably he wore himself out”: Hill, 18.
20 “The voyage”: Ibid, 22.
20 “a brewer was often”: Healey, 30.
21 “ The secret of this”: Hill, 27.
21 “quite appalling”: Healey, 42.
21 “The happiest days of my life”: Ibid., 46.
21 Shortly after the Weyerhaeusers moved: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 5.
22 He paid his employees on time: Ibid., 29.
23 By the 1880s, the nation’s railroads: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 135.
23 But in the latter half: Cox et al., 128.
23 In 1867 Weyerhaeuser made his first purchase: Healey, 62.
23 “I love the woods life”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 32.
24 But an episode from his youth: Healey, 25.
25 Americans are, “above all else”: Cox et al., xv.
25 In what was to become New England: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 12.
25 It was the greatest temperate-zone forest: Cox et al., 62.
25 So beneficent were the forests: Cox et al., 5.
25 “It is a very fine Country”: Cox, 1.
26 “a Wooden Town”: Ibid., xv.
26 Shipbuilding was New England’s most profitable: Rutkow, 24.
26 By the end of the 1600s: Cox et al., 14.
27 By the time Maine became a state: Cox, 10.
27 “seems to be”: Thoreau, 5.
27 No New England tree was more prized: Rutkow, 107.
27 They tried to outdo: Edmonds.
27 “These men cannot live”: Dwight, vol. 2, 321.
28 With the possible exception of whaling: Holbrook, 17.
28 hung his boots on a nearby tree: Cox et al., 84.
28 One logjam on the Kennebec River: Ibid.
29 When the colonists landed: Clawson, 1169.
29 Today about 40 percent is: Ibid.
29 Based on numbers from the US Forest Service: Ibid., 1171.
29 But let’s say that half: Ibid.
29 at least five times the value: James R. Craig and J. Donald Rimstidt. 1998. “Gold Production History of the United States,” Ore Geology Reviews 13(6): 407.
30 The rising water carried away: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 72.
31 “No other man in America”: Rutkow, 114.
32 In St. Paul he bought the mansion: Healey, 136.
33 “The timber between the Cascade Range and Puget Sound”: Martin, 396.
33 An ingenious backwoods doctor: Martin, 16.
34 Strong, gregarious, independent: Malone, 14.
34 “two streaks of rust”: Ibid., 34.
35 Between 1879 and 1883: Ibid., 85.
35 By 1885, four separate transcontinental lines: White, xxxviii.
35 At the age of fifty: Malone, 102.
36 “Give me enough Swedes”: Schwantes, Railroad Signatures, 133.
36 So many people walked away: Hoffman, 109.
36 L. Frank Baum wrote a story: Taylor, 413.
37 In the 1860s and ’ 70s: Mercer, 6.
37 The company eventually claimed: Jensen and Draffan, 7.
38 The legislation meant: Ibid., 9.
38 a hamlet of one hundred people: Morgan, 43.
39 Money for wages ran out: McClelland, Cowlitz Corridor, 29.
39 At one point, unpaid workers: Crowell, 54.
39 pitched into the mud: Kirk and Alexander, 329.
39 “the only times [I] ever lost money”: Bureau of Corporations, 186.
40 At the time, the purchase: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 213.
40 “There is a great lot of it”: Ibid., 214.
42 On May 24, 1935: Cantwell, 193.
42 He was wearing: “Chum of Victim Tells Story: Kidnaped Boy Smiling and Happy on Way Homes, Says Friend,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 26, 1935.
42 “How do I get”: “Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping,” HistoryLink: The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, Essay #7711. Available at http://www.historylink.org.
43 They crossed a stream: Cantwell, 194.
44 “We don’t want to hurt anyone”: “Ransom Note Bared! N.Y. Gang Sought in Kidnapping,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 27, 1935.
44 Thousands of people gathered: “10, 000 Pass by Weyerhaeuser Family Home,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 31, 1935.
44 They published pictures of George: “As He Looks Now: Kidnapped Boy Minus Curls,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 30, 1935.
45 The next morning, Weyerhaeuser received a telephone call: Twining, 143.
47 “I went through all sorts of sensations”: Cantwell, 211.
PART 2: THE WARNINGS
51 On Wednesday, March 26: Beals, Cline, and Koler, 13.
52 For two decades: Virginia Culver, “Geologist Predicted St. Helens Eruption,” Denver Post. April 14, 2009.
52 they confirmed that the volcano: Crandell and Mullineaux, C3.
52 They discovered that Spirit Lake: Mullineaux and Crandell, 10–11.
52 Potential Hazards from Future Eruptions: Crandell and Mullineaux, C1-C2.
53 The last eruption was in 1857: Holmes, 43.
53 At the meeting in Vancouver, Mullineaux recounted: Thompson, 33.
53 Only two people in the city: Oppenheimer, 34.
54 Over the years, Weyerhaeuser: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 1, page 1512.
55 “You mean to tell us”: Thompson, 34.
55 “I suppose that is not an unusual phenomenon”: Brown, 207.
55 Five years earlier, Mount Baker: Hodge, Sharp, and Marts, 221–48.
56 Many of the problems: Saarinen and Sell, 29–34.
56 “I’d give them facts”: Thompson, 42.
57 But starting on March 31: Robert Decker, 817.
57 On April 1, a new eruption: Foxworthy and Hill, 22.
58 It had three zones: Mullineaux, 189.
60 In the late winter and early spring: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Comparative Climatic Data for the United States Through 2009 (Asheville, NC: National Climatic Data Center), 81.
60 Some began to sell: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 8.
60 “If we had to move”: “‘Sightseers go home,’ Say Yale, Cougar,” The Lewis County News, April 9, 1980.
61 “People are swarming in”: Foxworthy and Hill, 23.
61 On March 27, when the first ash clouds: Sorenson, 162.
61 Soon maps surfaced: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 8.
65 the cemeteries were filled with men: LeMonds, 162.
66 Most of the money generated: Robbins, 414.
67 In 1929, John Killian’s father: “Ralph J. Killian,” Longview Daily News, March 24, 2010.
69 “A major deformation like this”: Rick Seifert, Longview Daily News, April 24, 1980.
70 He and a few of the other geologists: Associated Press, “St. Helens Like Soviet Volcano,” The Daily World, April 8, 1980.
70 Suddenly, on March 30, 1956: Belousova, Voight, and Belousova, 706.
70 Early in April, a state snowplow: Waitt, 50.
71 Such an eruption could: Voight, 1695.
72 “Mount St. Helens has done so many things”: Foxworthy and Hill, 26.
73 “I had been there many times”: Thompson, 75.
73 An April 25 press release: Beals, Cline, and Koler, 24.
73 “The probability of an avalanche”: United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, “Bulge Newest Hazard at Mount St. Helens Volcano” (press release), April 30, 1980.
73 “would be a pretty extreme scenario”: Associated Press, "Bulge Poses Massive Slide Danger," Daily News Journal, April 29, 1980.
74 “I have a gut feeling”: J. Erickson, “Geologist: Bulge May Pop Like Lava Balloon,” News Tribune, May 6, 1980.
74 Many had worked previously: Thompson, 55–71.
75 “There is a good chance”: UPI, “Volcano Shows Signs of Eruption,” Hutchinson News, May 1, 1980.
76 “There’s a hell of a lot”: Nelson, 214.
76 Certainly if he ever ran: Don Jenkins, “Former Cowlitz County Sheriff Les Nelson Dies at 88,” February 27, 2010.
77 “Trying to pin down a geologist”: Thompson, 36.
77 “I stuck it out”: Ibid., 50
78 He’d been running the Mount St. Helens Lodge: Rosen, 41.
78 Truman wouldn’t have time: Donna duBeth, “Sheriff Prepares for Eruptions,” Longview Daily News, April 29, 1980.
78 Truman thought the trees: Rosen, 131.
78 “The mountain will never hurt me”: Carson, 34.
79 “I never wanted to be wrong”: duBeth, “Sheriff Prepares.”
80 In the spring of 1980: Karr et al. v. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 2, page 843.
80 “The next log has fallen”: Kesey, 182–85.
81 One evening, after setting chokers all day: Andre Stepankowsky, “No One Stood Taller Than Ralph Killian,” Longview Daily News, May 29, 2010.
82 John was making good money: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 2, page 616.
84 They began by drawing a line: Ibid., microfilm roll 3, page 257 .
85 So on the western and northwestern sides: Ibid., 253.
86 “wanted the zone to extend as far out”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 13.
86 “If this isn’t Weyerhaeuser and county politics”: Waitt, 74.
87 Timber sales had brought in: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 11.
87 “We were anxious to continue”: Ibid.
87 “I missed a lot of sleep”: Paula Becker, “Ray, Dixy Lee,” HistoryLink, November 20, 2004. Available at http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=601.
88 “There is no evidence”: Don Duncan, Mark Matassa, and Jim Simon. “Dixy Lee Ray: Unpolitical, Unique, Uncompromising,” The Seattle Times, January 3, 1994.
88 She made headlines in Washington, DC: Rebecca Boren and Debera Carlton Harrell, “Former Gov. Dixy Lee Ray Dies—A Pioneer Amid Controversy,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 3, 1994.
88 “It can’t be because”: Lauren Byrnes, “From Mt. Rainier to the Governorship of Washington, Dixy Lee Ray Was a Climber,” AAUW, October 31, 2013.
88 During her time as governor: Ibid.
88 In 1978 she named a litter: Ibid.
88 “I might just read”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 7.
89 Toward the end of April: Lee Seigel, “Gov. Ray May Shut Peak Area,” Longview Daily News, April 29, 1980.
89 “You cannot restrict or remove people”: Peter Lewis et al., “Safety Questions Head for Courts,” Seattle Times, May 14, 1981.
89 “It’s just impossible”: Ibid.
89 Toward the third week of April: Foxworthy and Hill, 31.
90 on April 24, the US military: Mark Bowden, “The Desert One Debacle,” The Atlantic, May 2006.
90 The property owners knew: Thompson, 93.
91 “It wasn’t my jurisdiction”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 11.
92 “It was in an area”: Ibid., 13.
92 a colleague of Rocky Crandell’s had done an analysis: Thompson, 94.
93 “in case of violent explosion”: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 2, page 688.
94 “I wish I did”: Associated Press, “Harry Truman,” Longview Daily News, May 15, 1980.
PART 3: THE CONSERVATIONISTS
99 On August 22, 1986: diary entries, summer of 1896. Library of Congress, Gifford Pinchot papers, Box 2.
99 “the most noble looking object”: Meriwether Lewis diary entries, Sunday, March 30, 1806, available at http://www.gutenberg.org.
100 His grandfather, Cyrille Pinchot, had emigrated: Miller, 21.
101 In that book, published in 1864: Marsh, passim.
101 Gifford Pinchot’s father: Miller, 56.
101 “an amazing question”: Pinchot, 1.
102 “first public statement”: Ibid., 6.
102 For several months he traveled: Miller, 78.
102 “a permanent population”: Pinchot, 13.
102 “willing to try”: Miller, 90.
103 “If we go on”: Williams, Americans and Their Forests, 397.
103 Often the timber companies: Ibid., 236.
103 “There was a high rate of failure”: Williams, Deforesting the Earth, 306.
104 “the most important legislation”: Pinchot, 85.
104 “the President of the United States may”: US Congress. “A Bill to Repeal the Timber Culture Laws and for other Purposes.” Mar. 3, 1891, ch. 561, 26 Stat. 1095.
104 Yeoman farmers: Limerick, 58.
105 “A national calamity”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 130.
105 “the best idea”: Stegner, 137.
105 Though many westerners: Rakestraw, 125.
106 Of course, the commissioners: Williams and Miller, 37.
107 President Cleveland should immediately: Miller, 136.
107 Pinchot’s study of forestry: Hays, 42.
108 “A Republican president will succeed me”: Hidy, Hill, and Nevins, 139.
108 “in Washington chiefs”: Pinchot, 137.
108 “This is a good place”: Miller, 143.
108 “the greatest good”: Pinchot, 261.
109 “I had the honor”: Egan, 36.
109 the two men chopped wood: Miller, 150.
109 “the subject is of importance”: American Forestry Association, 290.
110 “at present lumbermen”: Ibid, 137.
110 “business view”: Ibid., 3.
110 “good business”: Hays, 42.
110 “skin the country”: American Forestry Association, 4.
110 By the time he left office: Williams, Americans and Their Forests, 421.
111 “one of the top forests”: McClure and Mack, 93.
111 As had been predicted: Williams, The U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest, 166.
112 The cut on national forests: Ibid., 371, Appendix E.
113 “Multiple use” was always a misnomer: Hirt, xix.
113 By the 1970s, ten to twenty: Ibid., 135.
115 For decades, groups in Washington and Oregon: Pryde, 7.
116 Look at the town: McClelland, R. A. Long’s Planned City, passim.
117 In Saul’s clippings file: “Reader Forum: The Answer on Logging Area Near Mt. St. Helens Is a Loud ‘NO!’” Longview Daily News, June 28, 1978.
119 About twenty people were gathered: Guggenheim, 127–28.
123 He’d read an article: Keith Ervin, “St. Helens Calm, but Far from Harmless,” News-Journal, April 29, 1980.
124 Nelson tried one last time: Thompson, 96.
124 “Your independence and straightforwardness”: Rosen, 145.
125 “The only reason I’m here”: Ibid.
125 He had painted himself: Waitt, 80.
126 “We got the best experts”: Alan K. Ota, John Snell, and Leslie L. Zaitz, “A Terrible Beauty,” Portland Oregonian, October 27, 1980, 14.
126 John and Christy were trying to start a family: Barbara LaBeo, “A World with Fewer Adventurers, Parents, Researchers,” Longview Daily News, May 15, 2010.
126 “They’ve opened Fawn Lake”: Waitt, 96.
126 The Weyerhaeuser Company had told their father: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, “Declaration of Ralph Killian,” microfilm roll 1, page 1924.
127 Les Nelson and the other sheriffs: Ibid., microfilm roll 3, page 571.
127 The new proposal would: Memo from Ed Chow to Dixy Lee Ray, May 17, 1980.
127 Nelson sent a memo: Memo from Leslie Nelson to Edward Chow, May 15, 1980.
128 But they delayed for a day: Waitt, 93.
128 Also by the third week of May: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 15–16.
128 Rumors circulated: Rick Seifert, “Mountain Protesters Get Results,” Longview Daily News, May 17, 1980.
129 They loaded leather chairs: Waitt, 103.
129 he was planning to come to Castle Rock: Rosen, 149.
129 “Oh, c’mon”: Waitt, 107.
130 At the staff meeting the geologists: Thompson, 100.
130 Johnston had never been to Coldwater II: Waitt, 101.
132 “Are you serious?”: Thompson, 105.
133 “It’s a serious study”: Rick Seifert, “Geologists Missing: Scientists Likely Died in Mountain Home,” Longview Daily News, May 20, 1980.
133 “I’m doing geology at my cabin”: Waitt, 94.
134 Earlier on Saturday, Gerry Martin: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 19.
134 Blackburn was popular: Jacqui Banaszynski, “A Day for Remembering Reid,” Eugene Register-Guard, May 30, 1980.
135 “The whole day I’d just been on edge”: Steve Twedt, “May 18: Tragic Twists Led to Deaths at Campsites,” Longview Daily News, August 19, 1981.
135 Blackburn had talked by phone: Steve Twedt, “Reid’s Story: The Tragedy of One Man’s Death,” Longview Daily News, August 18, 1981.
136 Northeast of Fawn Lake: Waitt, 100.
137 Farthest upriver, Clyde Croft: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 16, 25.
138 Farthest downriver, six friends: Waitt, 94.
138 Since then they had been inseparable: Daily News and Journal-American, 74.
138 Earlier that week, the Moores: Mike and Lu Moore, “May 18th on the Green River,” Mount St. Helens Protective Association newsletter.
PART 4: THE ERUPTION
143 “Do you like to fly?”: Videotaped interview with Dorothy Stoffel posted by King5 News on May 18, 2010. (Interview no longer available online.)
143 “They were on their fourth pass”: Korosec, Rigby, and Stoffel, 5–6.
144 “Let’s get out of here”: David Ammons, “Eyewitnesses to the Eruption Just ‘Microseconds’ from Death,” Bremerton Sun, May 23, 1980.
144 He redlined the airspeed indicator: Waitt, 123.
145 When the cloud hit the resorts: Voight, 1981, 82–86.
146 “What are things like up there?”: Thompson, 108.
146 The landslide consisted of three blocks: Moore and Rice, 134.
147 Technically, the explosion: Esposti Ongaro et al., 2.
147 The blast cloud accelerated as it spread: Kieffer, 379.
147 his voice was excited, not fearful: Allan Brettman, “This Is It,” Longview Daily News, May 17, 1995.
148 On the wall of his childhood bedroom: Thompson, 131.
149 Sunday morning, Pluard: Alan K. Ota, John Snell, and Leslie L. Zaitz, “A Terrible Beauty,” Portland Oregonian, October 27, 1980, 23.
149 Dorothy Stoffel later said: Waitt, 121.
151 Three cats traveled with him: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 19.
151 “Oh oh, I just felt”: Memorandum from Edward Chow Jr., to Dixy Lee Ray, dated July 29, 1980, recommending that Martin’s family be awarded with a plaque, signed “OK, agreed,” by Ray.
152 Martin’s microphone switch: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 21.
153 The next line in his notebook: Waitt, 155.
153 The blast cloud reached him: Twedt, “May 18: Tragic Twists.”
154 Climbers on Mount Rainier: Waitt, 141.
154 Before leaving Vader the previous day: Ross Anderson, “A Father’s Lonely Quest,” Seattle Times, May 10, 1981.
155 the air pressure suddenly changed: Rosenbaum and Waitt, 58.
156 Croft and Handy had camped: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 25.
157 He pulled out a case: Ibid.
158 For three more miles he walked: Ibid., 27.
159 “There must be a fire somewhere”: Ibid., 24.
160 Bruce wrapped his arms around Sue: O’Shei, 13.
160 “Are you okay?”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 25.
160 “Bullshit”: Carol Perkins, “Campers Survive an Ordeal on a Mountain of Death,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 21, 1980.
160 “we’re not dead yet”: Waitt, 173.
161 “If we get out of here alive”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 25.
161 His skin hung from his hands: Waitt, 175.
162 “Don’t leave me here to die!”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 27.
162 “Can’t you stay with me?”: Waitt, 176.
163 “No one could be alive”: Ibid., 178.
163 But Brian was no longer at the shack: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 30.
163 “Hey survivor”: Ibid. 182.
164 like a Hardy Boys story: “Buzz Smith: A Tortuous Hike Through ‘Hell on Earth,’” People, May 20, 1985, 116.
164 When they met Danny: Tom Vogt, “Waking to a Nightmare,” Vancouver Columbian, April 1, 2010.
165 Sunday morning, Lu Moore: Mike and Lu Moore, “May 18th on the Green River,” Mount St. Helens Protective Association newsletter.
167 Shortly before noon: Mary Don, “Family Saved from Mountain Still Not Home,” Oregon Journal, May 21, 1980.
168 “Leave that damn thing”: Waitt, 326.
PART 5: THE RESCUES
171 “The mountain’s blown”: Waitt, 135.
172 Swanson couldn’t believe what he was seeing: Thompson, 109.
172 After Reber dropped off: Waitt, 277–79.
174 “Look at that”: Alan K. Ota, John Snell, and Leslie L. Zaitz, “A Terrible Beauty,” Portland Oregonian, October 27, 1980, 28.
174 “Time to get the hell out of here”: Waitt, 160.
174 “He’s only doing 80”: Ibid., 161.
176 “We are leaving the area!”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 21.
176 “ a monstrous mural”: Waitt, 189.
176 “There it goes”: Ibid., 213.
176 he took twenty photographs: Voight, "Time Scale," 81.
177 “Run for your lives”: Waitt, 236.
177 One strange aspect: Dewey, passim
178 In almost every case: Eisele et al., passim.
180 As they neared the edge of the water: Parchman, 49.
181 “We’d been in the river five minutes”: Waitt, 200.
181 “How bad is it?”: Ibid., 254.
181 “Camp Baker had [been] built”: Ibid., 259.
182 eventually twenty-seven bridges would be destroyed: “Mount St. Helens—From the 1980 Eruption to 2000,” US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 036-00.
182 “ Lots of popping and snapping”: Waitt, 316.
182 By the end of the day: Ibid., 280.
183 “El volcán esta explotando”: Parchman, 23.
183 “It got hot right away”: Waitt, 164.
183 he later would be found: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 32.
183 When the flight surgeon reached out: Ibid., 29.
184 One entrepreneur used a crane: John O’Ryan, “Logjam Brings Kelso a Bonanza,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 19, 1980.
184 Weyerhaeuser began suing: “A Suit to Get Logs Back,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 21, 1980.
184 The flood carried immense amounts: Schuster, 705.
185 “You see the smoke”: Waitt, 125.
186 town of Othello: Personal communication, Edna Taylor.
186 emergency runs to convenience stores: Personal communication, Rick Olson.
186 to collect the ash in jars: Personal communication, Dave Olson.
187 Even a year later: Waitt, 345.
188 “This guy looks awfully young”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 32.
188 But below the ash: Ibid., 31.
189 “If you don’t let these kids”: Waitt, 338.
192 “This is all very interesting”: Dick Johnston, “Carter Vows Fast Volcano Action,” The Oregonian, May 22, 1980.
193 “not so much for the people who were killed”: “President Arrives to Assess the Volcano Damage,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 22, 1980.
193 “Don’t ask me about the governor”: Lee Siegel, “Carter Calls Volcano Disaster,” Bellevue Journal American, May 22, 1980.
193 “My headphones don’t work”: Waitt, 335.
194 “Many people chose to remain”: Lee Siegel, “Dixy: Victims Chose to Stay; We’re Not to Blame,” Bellevue Journal American, May 21, 1980.
194 “One of the reasons for the loss of life”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 34.
194 “Fearing the worst, state officials”: Findley, 20
195 “It’s like, you can’t be half pregnant”: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 2, page 1166.
PART 6: THE MONUMENT
202 Then the association got a break: Mount St. Helens Protective Association, unpublished manuscript.
202 The previous month, Weyerhaeuser: Pam Leven, “Weyerhaeuser Begins Salvage of Volcano-Damaged Timber,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 16, 1980.
203 “Land management decisions”: Parchman, 251.
203 “It wasn’t just the volcano”: Nance, 6.
204 a group of angry westerners: Short, 8.
204 Actually, very similar movements: Ibid., 11.
204 “I renew my pledge”: Ibid., 9.
206 Mount St. Helens was withdrawn: Rick Seifer, “Carter Eyes Peak as Monument,” Longview Daily News, December 30, 1980.
209 In the years before her death: Knute Berger, “A Water Taxi Named ‘Dixy’?” Crosscut, August 5, 2014.
211 In hearings on the proposed bills: United States Congress, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Area: Joint Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Forests, Family Farms, and Energy of the Committee on Agriculture and the Subcommittee on Public Lands and National Parks of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 5281, H.R. 5773, H.R. 5787, March 11, 1982, Washington, DC, April 3, 1982, Vancouver, WA.
214 It and Burlington Northern traded away: “Peak Bill’s Fate Up to President,” Longview Daily News, August 18, 1982.
216 “ What is the real motive”: Short, 52.
216 “too small to be a state”: Patricia Sullivan, “Anne Gorsuch Burford, 62, Dies: Reagan EPA Director,” Washington Post, July 22, 2004.
216 The Office of Management and Budget: Ward Sinclair, “White House Still Wary of Peak Monument Land Swap,” Longview Daily News, August 2, 1982.
217 On August 26, 1982: Andre Stepankowsky, “Reagan Signs Monument Bill,” Longview Daily News, August 27, 1982.
217 By the end of his presidency: Steven F. Hayward, “Ronald Reagan and the Environment,” inFocus Quarterly, Fall 2009.
PART 7: DECLINE AND RENEWAL
221 “from April 1980, until May 18”: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 1, page 1517.
222 “Weyerhaeuser did not vary the work location”: Parchman, 297.
222 “They chose to ignore that”: Ota, Snell, and Zaitz, 13.
222 The majority of the jurors: Larry Lange, ““Act of God’ Factor Splits the Jury in Volcano Suit,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 3, 1985.
223 Finally the families agreed to settle: Larry Lange, “St. Helens Suit Against Weyerhaeuser Settled,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 7, 1987.
223 “I’m glad it’s over”: Parchman, 308.
223 Dixy Lee Ray and George Weyerhaeuser certainly talked: Timothy Egan, “Dixy Changes Story on Red Zone Limits,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 10, 1984.
223 “Before May 18 . . . I spoke several times”: Karr et al. vs. the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser Company, microfilm roll 2, page 296.
223 As Weyerhaeuser said in his affidavit: Ibid., 279–80.
224 The age of heroic, highball: Penttila and Bertroch, 96.
224 Industrial timber harvests: Data downloaded from Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Available at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/TimberHarvestReports.
224 Soon after the salvage operation ended: LeMonds, 122.
225 “We’re not a philanthropic enterprise”: George Draffan, “A Profile of the Weyerhaeuser Corporation.” Available at http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html.
226 dropped by one-third: Warren, 3.
226 An obscure Massachusetts environmental group: Dietrich, 91.
226 “a school for the young”: LeMonds, 101.
227 In 1980, Weyerhaeuser had 48,000 employees: Employment numbers are from annual reports and from http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/Sustainability/DataAndGRIIindex.
227 he was the kind of guy: Recounted at the memorial service for George Weyerhaeuser, Jr., held on May 31, 2013, at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.
228 none of the company’s top corporate officers: Bill Virgin, “Local Family Ties That Bind to Companies Evolve Through the Years,” News Tribune, April 28, 2013.
228 “You feel like you want to”: Associated Press, “Families Continue Search for Mt. St. Helen’s Victims,” Winnipeg Free Press, May 14, 1981.
228 “I don’t know if it was an illusion”: Parchman, 335.
229 “We’d failed”: Waitt, 323.
229 “Naturally, if I had it all to do over”: Associated Press, “Scientists Frankly Admit Volcano Confounded Them,” Bremerton Sun, May 22, 1980.
230 “Mount St. Helens has probably included”: Crandell, Mullineaux, and Rubin, 439.
230 “strong laterally directed explosion”: Crandell and Mullineaux, C4.
230 they have improved their procedures: Saarinen and Sell, 52.
231 “would have preferred the simple hazards”: Rowley et al., 7.
231 It also created a standardized: Fearnley et al., passim.
231 a fantastic suite of new technologies: Vallance et al., passim.
232 geologists around the world have identified hundreds: Tilling, “Mount St. Helens 20 Years Later,” 16.
232 Mount Augustine in Alaska: Siebert, 53.
232 Mount Rainier, had shed prodigious amounts: Hoblitt et al., 6.
233 Today, hundreds of thousands of people: Driedger and Scott, 12.
233 with a significant eruption occurring: Kiver, 8.
233 When Mount Mazama in southern Oregon erupted: Harris, 133–56.
233 If the caldera under Yellowstone National Park: Lowenstern et al.
233 In 1985 a relatively small eruption: Tilling, “Volcanic Hazards and Their Mitigation,” 252–54.
233 The enormous 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo: Fisher, Heiken, and Hulen, 53.
234 an average of fifty to sixty volcanoes: Peterson, 4161.
234 about twenty separate eruptions: Tilling, Topinka, and Swanson, 30.
234 From 2004 until 2008 the volcano erupted again: Sherrod, Scott, and Stauffer, 6.
236 Studies conducted in the monument: Dale, Swanson, and Crisafulli, passim.
236 One surprising observation: Franklin and MacMahon, 1183.
236 more than 120 kinds of spiders: Lynne Peeples, “11 Surprising Natural Lessons from Mount St. Helens,” Scientific American, May 19, 2010. Available at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mount-st-helens-lessons.
236 An especially important plant: Colasurdo, 247.
237 The succession of species: Nash, 572.
237 an expensive and controversial aerial reseeding program: Carson, 115.
238 the area surrounding Mount St. Helens today: Le Guin, 5.
239 In 1985 she and a group of other environmentalists: From the mission statement of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force: http://www.gptaskforce.org/about.
240 The lake water splashed: Decker, The Rebirth of Mount St. Helens, 26.
240 The Forest Service is a different agency: Dietrich, 312–13.
240 Between 1982 and 2008: “Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument: A Summary of Economic Performance in the Surrounding Communities,” Headwaters Economics, 2011.
240 Hunters, mountain bikers: Cooper, 5.
240 sold its holdings in the area: Tom Paulu, “Coalition Strives to Reopen High Lakes Area to Public,” Longview Daily News, September 27, 2012.
240 An even greater threat: Natalie St. John, “Ascot CEO: Mining Gamble Near Volcano Could Bring Thousands of Jobs,” Longview Daily News, December 8, 2012. A subsequent series of articles by St. John explored the mining proposals and consequences in detail.
EPILOGUE
243 Since 1980, geologists have learned: Doughton, passim.
243 Computer simulations of a large earthquake: Ibid., 85.
243 According to a 2006 study: Ripley, xiv.