These old documentaries are SO much better than the trashy, sensationalized newer ones with silly music and props and talkers. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was such a big even that it doesn’t require any sensationalism. Just a calm factual narrative like this will do.
The January 1981 issue of "National Geographic" magazine hit the nail RIGHT on the head when it referred to the area around Mount St. Helens as having been "transformed into a lunar landscape."
I remember seeing this in Portland, Oregon's museum of science when I was probably about 10. Never forgot it and always wondered what it was called. The image of the mountain lion running away & the fish swimming away stuck with me, and now at 47 I finally saw it again! Thanks for posting this!
10:37 That shot was taken from Highway 12 at the bottom of the hill from my aunt's tree farm in Mossyrock, Washington. She and her husband were there when the mountain blew.
I drove over both the north and southbound I-5 bridges featured here a few days ago, and I couldn't help but think about all the mud and logs that came down the Toutle River that fateful day.
The May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens was the most destructive since the 1917 eruption of Lassen Peak in northern California, which was not as violent.
@@Tiberiansam Makes sense. I think the character of Ruth (the grandma who lived on the mountain) was inspired by the real Harry R. Truman, the proprietor of Spirit Lake Lodge who perished in this eruption. He was never found.
One nice thing about these old documentries is they document the human side of these disasters. Most of the modern ones only want the science and never look at what these events do to humans.
Remembering watching this documentary in school when I was about 10 years old 😮 it really affected me that the guy with the cats stayed , and that his poor cats suffered the tragic fate because of his decision 😢
Truman was the subject of the books Truman of St. Helens: The Man and His Mountain by his niece Shirley Rosen, and The Legend of Harry Truman by his sister Geri Whiting. He was portrayed by Art Carney, his favorite actor, in the 1981 docudrama St. Helens. Memorabilia were sold in the area surrounding Mount St. Helens, including Harry Truman hats, pictures, posters, and postcards. A restaurant opened in Anchorage, Alaska, named after him, serving dishes such as Harry's Hot Molten Chili. According to The Washington Star, more than 100 songs had been composed in Truman's honor by 1981, in addition to a commemorative album titled The Musical Legend Of Harry Truman - A Very Special Collection Of Mount St. Helens’ Volcano Songs. He is the subject of the 2007 song "Harry Truman" written and recorded by Irish band Headgear. Lula Belle Garland wrote "The Legend of Harry And The Mountain," which was recorded in 1980 by Ron Shaw & The Desert Wind Band. Musicians Ron Allen and Steve Asplund wrote a country rock song in 1980 called "Harry Truman, Your Spirit Still Lives On". Billy Jonas included Truman's narrative in his song "Old St. Helen" in 1993. It is likely that Truman's life and attitude were the inspiration for "Grandma" in the movie Dante's Peak.
I was 7 at the time, we had some ash and the sky was a light pink/grey for many days. I remember writing my name in the ash on the cars. I live in Edmonton Alberta.
This is very good. I was 4 when it erupted, living in Lynnwood, WA, a suburb north of Seattle. I was shielded from lots of the horrors of it but I knew a little bit what was going on. I only remember bits and pieces of my early childhood...I don't remember any ash in our area, but my grandparents down south of me in Elma, WA (Grays Harbor County) got lots of it. It was all over Grandpa's cows. They packaged a bunch of it up and sent it to us! I remember the picture of the poor naked dead boy sprawled in the back of his dad's pickup truck. My brother told me his clothing was torn off by the scorching winds. That image of the dead boy haunted me!
I remember seeing that photo in a book about the eruption. The bodies of his father and brother were found nearby as well. Even worse was the way the boy's mother found out about the deaths (she saw the photo in a local newspaper and recognized her son).
Never been to Mount St Helens have you ever been there???????? You are very lucky to have a talk with you guys and the rest of the day you get the same feeling ok and you lol.
@bleumisee Lucky you - beautiful place to live (or visit, as I've done a few times). I do hope you have bug out bags and an escape plan - just in case.
I was able to see spirit lake and scale the volcano several years ago. Even after the eruption it is simply beautiful. However still looks like an aftermath from an atom bomb. The miner car that was simply crushed and all the logs and such still in the lake. It was a sight to behold.
Johnston Ridge Observatory is one of my favorite places to go. Every time I go, it's like seeing it for the first time again. The big, gaping crater, the steaming lava dome, and the life that has grown back since the last time I visited. . . It's absolutely incredible.
@@AP-57 but the landslide was moving crazy fast....i think they said 300mph or some shit. But that blast was like 600mph.....insane how powerful that must of been
@@lukas_jay243 yep, its was. Probably got cremated and then maybe his remains burried seconds later by the mudslide if the blast got to him first. Or his remains just turned to dust and blew further out with the blast? I can only imagine a go pro on him would have seen in those first few seconds, if it was possible then
I remember living in Washington for a few years and one of my teachers told me and some other students about that day. He and his family were having breakfast at a Denny's when a guy ran into the restaurant and yelled Mount St. Helens erupted but no one believed him as no one heard an explosion. When he and his family left it was pitched blackout. The stupid part (in my opinion) was that he went to take care of the garden like he promised his wife in all of this crazyness
Obviously you weren't born yet or didn't live through it.. I DID... If you had lived through this experience there is NO way you would have been bored...
definitely not boring! I was in utero when this happened but my first husband is 5 years older than I am and he grew up about 20 minutes south of St. Helen's.... he told me that he could remember that by noon, it was full dark because of the ash cloud and they all had to wear those air masks as they were evacuating. scary stuff!
Had that forest service tree planting crew been in their original planned location (north side of the mountain) they would have been killed. Their supervisor moved them off that spot at 5:30 that morning, 3 hours before the eruption.
The scientists didn't have a clue what was going to happen. I was only 10 years old at the time, and when I heard about the side of the mountain bulging I told my parents it sounded like the mountain was going to explode sideways. If a 10yo kid could figure it out why couldn't volcanologists with a college degree?
All you have to do is look at the power of a volcano and realize man cannot destroy or even really damage permanently this planet. Yes we can do small local harm and we have but we’re not that bad. Three things make me not believe climate change 1 volcanoes 2 the power of the sun and 3 other predictions they made that never came true in fact exact opposite happened
Friends hoped that Truman might have survived, as he had claimed to have provisioned an abandoned mine shaft with food and liquor in case of an eruption, but the lack of immediate warning of the oncoming eruption may have prevented him from escaping to the shaft before the pyroclastic flow reached his lodge (less than a minute after it began). Even if Truman had made it there, the aforementioned landslide would likely have suffocated him, and/or prevented his rescue. His sister Geraldine said that she found it hard to accept the reality of his death. "I don't think he made it, but I thought if they would let me fly over and see for myself that Harry's lodge is gone, then maybe I'd believe it for sure." Truman's niece Shirley Rosen added that her uncle thought he could escape the volcano but was not expecting the lateral eruption. She stated that her sister took him a bottle of Bourbon whiskey to persuade him to evacuate, but he was too afraid to drink alcohol at the time because he was unsure whether the shaking was coming from his body or the earthquakes. His possessions were auctioned off as keepsakes to admirers in September 1980.
🖕 Truman. He got those poor innocent cats killed because of his stubborn ignorance and refusal to leave. I wish I was alive back then. I would've bashed his door down to his cabin and walked straight up to him kicking him square in his roody pooh candy 🍑 after I stomped on his nuttsack.
Harry R. Truman giving an interview to reporters and expressing his opinion that the danger was exaggerated. "I don't have any idea whether it will blow," Harry said, "but I don't believe it to the point that I'm going to pack up." Harry displayed little concern about the volcano and his situation: "If the mountain goes, I'm going with it. This area is heavily timbered, Spirit Lake is in between me and the mountain, and the mountain is a mile away, the mountain ain't gonna hurt me." Harry remained steadfast. "You couldn't pull me out with a mule team. That mountain's part of Truman and Truman's part of that mountain." Harry told reporters that he was knocked from his bed by precursor earthquakes, so he responded by moving his mattress to the basement. Harry claimed to wear spurs to bed to cope with the earthquakes while he slept. Harry scoffed at the public's concern for his safety, responding to scientists' claims about the threat of the volcano that "the mountain has shot its wad and it hasn't hurt my place a bit, but those goddamn geologists with their hair down to their butts wouldn't pay no attention to ol' Truman."
🖕 Truman. He got those poor innocent cats killed because of his stubborn ignorance and refusal to leave. I wish I was alive back then. I would've bashed his door down to his cabin and walked straight up to him kicking him square in his roody pooh candy 🍑 after I stomped on his nuttsack.
Truman was alone at his lodge with his 16 cats, and is presumed to have died in the eruption on May 18. It is likely that he died of heat shock in less than a second, too quickly to register pain, before his body was vaporized. The largest landslide in recorded history and a pyroclastic flow traveling atop the landslide engulfed the Spirit Lake area almost simultaneously, destroying the lake and burying the site of his lodge under 150 feet (46 m) of volcanic landslide debris. Authorities never found Truman's remains. Truman's cats are presumed to have died with him; he considered them family and mentioned them in almost all public statements.
🖕 Truman. He got those poor innocent cats killed because of his stubborn ignorance and refusal to leave. I wish I was alive back then. I would've bashed his door down to his cabin and walked straight up to him kicking him square in his roody pooh candy 🍑 after I stomped on his nuttsack.
Mt St. Helens was originally 5,550 feat tall not 9000 heck if it was 9000 it would be the tallest mountain out of the others!! And this is my favorite volcano!!
As sad as it was at the loss of 53 people I often wonder about the people that lived in that habitat that we only know as Sasquatch people and how much they endured and the lives they lost.
THE USGS knew FRIDAY MORNING THE MOUNTAIN WAS GOING TO BLOW,yet they had service crews planting trees on the lower mountain,the people were NOT being warned by the GOVERNMENT BECAUSE "THEY DIDN'T CARE" HOW MANY MIGHT DIE,this is the HERO'S of america in their EXTREME INCOMPETANCE IN ACTION...your hero's america...
