Mt. St. Helens: It's a Blast

Thirty years have passed since that fateful day in May when the landscape of a chunk of western Washington suddenly and dramatically changed forever. On the morning of May 18, 1980, a 5.1 earthquake centered at Mt. St. Helens triggered the largest landslide in recorded history. This, in turn, set off a massive eruption when trapped gases and super-heated ash spewed 60,000’ into the air. When it was all over, 230 square miles of forest were flattened, 57 people lost their lives, and 1300’ in elevation disappeared from the mountain.

Today, you can view a much quieter volcano and learn more about that eventful day by visiting one of several visitor centers and interpretive sites in Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The easiest and most popular access route is from the western side along Highway 504 (exit 49 on Interstate 5). Five miles west of the freeway is the Silver Lake Visitors Center operated by Washington State Parks. Admission is $3 and this is the only facility open year-round.
Displays feature information about the geology of volcanoes and the natural history of the region. Of special interest, is a timeline with newspaper front pages detailing the events before, during, and after the eruption; and a collection of mementos from various camps and resorts around Spirit Lake. There is a short video, book/gift store, and nature trail at the site.

From here, it is an additional 47 miles to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Make sure you have plenty of gas as there are no services on this or any of the other routes in the park. The observatory is at the end of the road and, as the closest point to the volcano, offers a breathtaking, unobstructed view across the pumice plain to the massive crater. Here you will find interpretive displays focused on volcanic geology as well as a video, ranger talks, and a trail to higher viewpoints. Admission charge is $8, but free for holders of a federal Senior Pass.
While most visitors to the park stick to the western side, it is the access from the east that provides the most dramatic view of the power and damage done by the 1980 eruption. There are no videos or museums on this side, but a number of trails and view sites offer explanations and a ranger is on duty at Windy Ridge during summer months. It is a long drive (allow about three hours from Portland) from either Woodland or US Highway 12 at Randle, but well worth it especially if you have only visited the western side. There is a feeling of remoteness and desolation as Forest Service Road 99 winds its way up to Windy Ridge. The drive passes through the blown down forest where blasts of wind more than 300 mph knocked down mature Douglas Fir like matchsticks. On clear days, there are sweeping views to the other dormant volcanoes of the Cascade Range and you can only wonder if they too will someday awaken from years of dormancy like St. Helens.

There are a few short trails along the way offering an opportunity to see close-up how nature is making a comeback in this devastated area. Finally, at the end of the road is Windy Ridge where the panoramic view overlooks the volcano and Spirit Lake. Once a popular resort, the lake is now filled with decomposing logs and surrounded by a landscape more reminiscent of the surface of the moon than wooded, western Washington.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the eruption, several events have been planned. Mt. St. Helens Institute will offer an education program focused on volcanic science in your backyard on May 15, and on the actual anniversary date, May 18, there will be a free admission day at the Johnston Ridge Observatory when the Forest Service will unveil a new, interactive seismic exhibit and movies.
To relive events, may I suggest a visit to Youtube.com and a search for CBS News Mt. St. Helens for a very young and serious Dan Rather reporting the story accompanied by some amazing footage. It’s a blast from the past!

Maryhill Museum

Take one wealthy road builder, one granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and the Tsar, one fabulously rich sugar baroness, one Folies-Bergeres dancer; shake together and add an impressive chateau, life-size replica of Stonehenge, French fashion mannequins, icons from Tsarist Russia, Rodin sculptures, and an assortment of peacocks. The result: one rather bizarre cultural attraction, right here in our backyard.
Maryhill Museum is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River on an arid bluff overlooking the rolling fields of Oregon. About 100 miles east of Portland, it was once described by Time Magazine as “the world’s most isolated museum.” To prove the point, a road sign a few miles east advises no gas for the next 82 miles.
How a major art facility ended up in such an odd setting is the story of one man’s vision, along with the help of a trio of extraordinary female friends. Sam Hill was a lawyer, entrepreneur, railroad executive, philanthropist, and road builder who had the dream of creating a utopian agricultural community where the “western rains meet the eastern sun of Oregon and Washington.” In 1907, he purchased 6,000 acres along the Columbia, naming the site Maryhill after his wife and daughter. Seven years later, construction began on an imposing 18th century, Flemish chateau similar in style to his Seattle mansion.
Because of the remote location and lack of a dependable irrigation system, the farming community failed and Hill’s interests took him elsewhere. During his world travels, he became friends with several fascinating women. Loie Fuller, a famous modern dancer, had connections with the Paris art scene including Auguste Rodin, and persuaded Hill to turn his unfinished mansion into an art museum.
Another friend, Queen Marie of Romania, showed her gratitude for Hill’s assistance to her country during and after World War I, by dedicating the empty museum in 1926. Her royal visit and entourage, including trunks of artwork for the new museum, created quite a stir in the national press.
After Hill’s death in 1931, it was another friend, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, who supervised the completion of the museum. The heiress of a San Francisco sugar fortune, she provided many paintings and other works of art from her personal collection. The museum opened to the public in 1940.

Today, it offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy an eclectic assortment of art objects found nowhere else. The first floor is filled with Queen Marie’s gilded furniture, throne, jewelry, family photos, and the gown she wore to the coronation of the last Russian Tsar. Another room features a small yet impressive collection of Orthodox icons, many donated by the queen.

Upstairs is an exhibit, Theatre de la Mode, a collection of 1946 haute couture fashion miniatures. In post-war Paris, supplies were so scarce the major French design houses resorted to using dolls scaled to one-third size to show off their new lines. The show traveled around to all the fashion capitals of the world and somehow ended up here in the middle of nowhere. On the bottom level is the internationally recognized Rodin collection of sculptures and watercolors. A display of more than 200 historic and unusual chess sets; large exhibit of Native American baskets, bead work, and other crafts; and memorabilia of Loie Fuller complete the collection.

Outside, the lushly landscaped grounds feature an outdoor sculpture garden with works by contemporary Northwest artists and a shady picnic area decorated with wandering peacocks. But the most eccentric of Sam Hill’s creations is about four miles east of the museum. Here, at the end of a gravel parking lot, on a bluff 600 feet above the Columbia River, is a full-scale, cement replica of Britain’s Neolithic Stonehenge. Raised as a Quaker and pacifist, Hill was deeply touched by the devastation of World War I and built this monument as a memorial to local Klickitat County soldiers killed in the war.