Being in Alabama at the time, it was just a news story for me - a big news story for sure, but no personal connection or effect.

I bet we have some members who were there in the area with some cool stories to share.

41 years ago: Mount St. Helens woke up and blew her top

My dad has a big ol' Ovaltine jar full of ash.

Grandparents lived on the backside of the mountain off in the near distance.

They were fine and nothing was destroyed but there was ash everywhere. I mean everywhere where air filters were clogged quickly and it was a fine pumice like stuff you just couldn't escape or get rid of.

I went up about 2 weeks after it happened and the shit was still everywhere. In piles and the funny thing was tourists who'd stop in town for gas and ask if they could have some of the ash. "Yes you can take all that you want."

Clogged up the large rivers with ash and fallen logs that were like big toothpicks. Fishing took a dump because ash ran into the rivers and fucked up the water.

I've got a jar of the ash somewhere.

My wife's Uncle lived up there . Said it was a helluva mess .

Living in the aftermath from the eruption was a nightmare for months. The ash got into everything and there was little recourse.



Jim

The ash made it to western MT later that afternoon. As I recall, we got around two inches here. They recommended wearing masks when outside and to not drive as it would harm your engines.

It sort of reminded me of being downwind from a large forest fire. It kind of had that thick ash/smoke look to it for a couple of days.

No CDC or Media mask mandate at that time?

I was here. Living in Hillsboro some 80 or 90 miles southwest of St. Helens. It was a Sunday morning and I didn't even know about it until I saw it on the news that night. Didn't hear a thing. The wind was blowing east that day so we didn't get any ash from it.

A few months later my parents were here visiting from Boise and one night we were out having dinner downtown. One of the waitresses had a radio going and heard that it had erupted again. This time the wind was blowing straight at us. The next morning all the vehicles (and everything else) were covered in ash. It rained that day (the day after the eruption) and an inch or two of ash turned into something a lot like wet cement. Getting the cars cleaned off without ruining the paint was a PITA. It was nothing like what the folks east of the mountain went through the first time, though.

We lived in Colorado at the time but were visiting my Grandparents in Auburn when it popped.
My Uncle flew us over the area in his Cessna afterwards. Pretty impressive the way the trees were laid out and for how far.

The ash was pretty nasty, constant cleaning and in everything.

We were in Billings MT at the time. Lots of ash in the days that followed. We blew out our engine air filters a few times.

Right here, same place same house. 200 miles northwest of the mountain, the ash cloud stayed for days. The marine climate and wind kept most of it above ground so the dust and grit wasn't as bad here as it was farther away in some cases.

Silence for days; no ferries, no air traffic, not much regular traffic. Living on an island paradise means a lot of 'supplies' come by trucks on ferries, so gas & food got short quick.

We weren't particularly prepared (wife and I, that is) so the object lesson happened early in our married life and we've had back up 'stuff' since.

The ferry shut down on 9/11 and days later was an annoyance for us, not a crisis thanks to the mountain. Small favors I guess.

I was born in Idaho, right at the spot where the Snake and Clearwater rivers merge. We got a fair amount of ash there. What was more interesting was the amount of ash that continued to drift up the Clearwater towards the Montana border. During hunting season we were still battling that crap, where it was still coating the trees, and would fall on us when we went thru.

Yep...we went to a local overlook spot and looked SE, we could see the plume/cloud in the distance. I believe we have some photos in one of our old albums somewhere. Being to the NW, we only got a light dusting as I recall.

Truly one of those rare/once-in-a-lifetime events. The Johnson Ridge observatory is well worth a visit.

https://www.visitmtsthelens.co...n-ridge-observatory/

$.02 worth,
Boss

I wasn't born yet when it erupted, but I drove up to Portland on Sunday. It was a really clear day and there were great views of both Mount St. Helens (50 miles north of downtown Portland) and Mount Hood (50 miles east of downtown Portland) starting maybe 15-20 miles southwest of downtown.

I was living in Olympia Wa working at the time MSH erupted. It is something else to see. But it wasn't till about 5 years later we were 4 wheeling just south of the lewis river and mudflows. We came upon an open area looking down at the mudflows. That is when it really hit me, the power of mother nature. Everything was wiped out for just about as far as you could see, very surreal.

I was 10 living in Albany, OR.

Sky turned dark, and ash covered everything.

I found this image of a local airfield as the ash cloud moved in to Spokane.



Jim

Got a nice little "dusting" in Des Moines, Wa.

My mother's best friend had a son who was a vulcanologist. His name was David Johnston. He died in the eruption. They never found his body. The observatory at Mount Saint Helens bears his name.

He was the first to report the eruption, transmitting "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was swept away by a lateral blast, never to be seen or heard from again.

I was in the front yard of my house 120 miles due north picking up the morning paper. I clearly heard the explosion, and later saw the ash cloud in the sky. We too just got a very light dusting of ash.