U.S. Phenomenon with Mario Magaña
Welcome to "U.S. Phenomenon" with Mario Magaña, a riveting podcast that dives deep into the unexplained and the extraordinary. Join Mario, the host as he explores the most intriguing paranormal events, alien encounters, and mysterious sightings across the United States. With his unique blend of real-life experience and passion for the unexplained, Mario brings you thrilling stories and expert insights in every episode. Whether it's alien abductions, ghostly apparitions, or cryptozoological creatures, Mario's engaging storytelling will captivate and keep you on the edge of your seat. Tune in to "U.S. Phenomenon" and embark on a journey into the unknown that will have you questioning everything you thought you knew.
U.S. Phenomenon with Mario Magaña
Echoes of Mount St. Helens: Reflecting on Nature's Fury and Resilience 44 Years Later
With heartfelt candor, we revisit the gripping tales of loss and survival that have become a part of Mount St. Helens' enduring legacy. From the tragic stories of those caught in the eruption's fury to the powerful imagery of a landscape stripped to its bare bones, our discussion delves into the larger narrative of natural disasters and the indelible marks they leave behind. As we recount the poignant efforts of recovery, including the creation of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway and the ongoing volcanic activity, we come to recognize the sheer tenacity of both the land and those who cherish it.
Bringing it all back home, this special anniversary episode isn't just a remembrance of an event that reshaped the Pacific Northwest—it's an invitation to marvel at the mysteries still lurking within Mount St. Helens' shadow. Alongside Sofia Magaña, we close our session with a reminder to keep our gazes skyward, ever open to the unfolding wonders above. So, join us on this auditory journey as we celebrate the resilience, the recovery, and the curious tales that keep the legend of Mount St. Helens as alive as the mountain itself.
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Welcome to US Phenomenon, where possibilities are endless. Put down those same old headlines. It's time to expand your mind and question what if? From paranormal activity to UFOs, bigfoot sightings and unsolved mysteries, this is US Phenomenon?
Speaker 2:It all began on a drive home from Swing Shift. The radio, my only companion, the voice of the legendary Art Bill, filled the car, a beacon in the darkness, speaking worlds beyond our own, those stories untold and secrets kept just out of sight. That voice, those tales ignited a spark within me, a drive to seek the truth, explore the phenomenon that lies just beyond the edge of reason, from the whispers of the paranormal to the echoes of the unknown. My quest began. So join me, fellow night travelers, as we continue our journey and delve into the enigma of the night and uncover the mysteries that await us. This is US Phenomenon. Tonight we celebrate the 44th anniversary. One of our correspondents joins us live on the US Phenomenon hotline Mark Christopher, welcome back to the show. How you been.
Speaker 3:Hi Mario. I just can't believe it's 44 years. I'm not that old, I'm only like 24, I think in just a bunch of years of experience and memory of what happened here in the state of Washington, which just was, who could expect, who could even plan what we all witnessed and experienced of the unknown Talk about phenomenon Mario back in May of 1980.
Speaker 2:It's so astonishing. We're talking about a devastation that covers over 200 square miles, unbelievable. And think of the technology that we have today, the 50-something that perished. That day could have been worse. But if the technology existed of what we have today, in the 80s we probably wouldn't have Johnson Ridge because we probably wouldn't have johnson ridge because johnson probably wouldn't be on the ridge. He would probably would not have been on cold water too. You know they would have noticed that. They would have had a full scale. They would have been seeing this mountain and the growth of the side of the mountain just continuing to protrude out, growth of the side of the mountain just continuing to protrude out and be able to say, look, something is going on versus.
Speaker 2:You know them taking shots every day and it's interesting, as we continue to watch the CGI of the footage that was taken from those, those that camera shot with that. You know the, the shutter clicks that we see those instant from back in the eighties. It was like click, click, click, click, click and you just saw the entire, uh flank of the mountain just vanish and then the paramount cloud that came out of the volcano. Uh, just astonishing. I mean I get chills every time I watch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, mario, and the whole thing. It as people are listening right now. You have to go back in time. My dad grew up in Montana, moved to the state of Washington, raising seven kids. We were outdoors all the time. Skamania County, Mount St Helens. This was such a different forest land In fact I remember he's saying you know, I just told Dad, I said, why is it so spooky around here? And I just told dad, I said why is it so spooky around here? And he goes well, what do you see? And I said well, we're traveling restricted roads. There's not too many down here.
Speaker 3:If you've ever been in the back country, even now, between, like Mount St Helens, mount Adams and the roundabout way, but before the eruption it was very limited roads, paved roads, and you'd see a deer on the side of a dirt road. You approach it, you blink your eye, the deer's gone. You cannot tell. Did it go left, did it go right? Did it go straight behind it? That's how thick these woods were. They were very spooky. I remember as a kid we'd go down there often, but it just. And then, of course, you heard all these Bigfoot stories too in Skamania County. This was a heart and soul of such a legend and such folklore for this creature. So as it kept growing up, it just added to it. And then, after the eruption of Mount St Helens, all that was gone pretty much. It was no longer thick woods, the prehistoric look, this old growth, like you said, 200 square miles of just unknown. And that's one thing I remember.
Speaker 2:Pre-mount St Helens it's interesting because I fast forward to 1980. I remember pre-Mount St Helens. It's interesting because, you know, I fast forward to 1980. I remember being very young and in 1988, we went camping in the backside of Mount St Helens and it was eerie, it was creepy. We were heading to go to Johnson Ridge and this is pre them planting the trees right, which is interesting because as you were driving down the road, you started to feel and see what devastation looked like. It was like you were driving and it looked like little matchsticks, like sticking up charred with no branches or limbs. They were just singed. And the further and further we drove in, the more you started to see the trees had been laid down like matchsticks as you continue to drive in, and it looked like soot everywhere. And this is 88, so you're talking just eight years after right, and as we continue to get, that that's still.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was johnson ridge at that point, or if it was still cold water too, or how we went, but once we got there, there was no, I don't think the observatory was there, it was just a parking lot you could like look, you could walk up the steps and you could look at the volcano from there. I don't know if I, I don't recall if the rid, if johnson's observatory was open yet I don't recall, but this was 88 and I was freaked out. I was like this is eerie, because it felt like I was on the moon. The wind howled, it was windy and it was just cold. It just seemed like it was silent in that area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Mario, I've shared the story with you. And it was two years after the eruption that my brother, my nephew, decided to go down to Mount St Helens just to drive the road, see how close we can get to it, because it was still restricted, very limited access the road, see how close we can get to it because it was still restricted, very limited access. And lo and behold, we go up a one mountain road and out in a small field just enough to land. A helicopter was a chopper and I thought well, what's this all about? We pulled over and said hi to the guy. I remember his name was Dewey and I said so what's your game here? He goes. Well, I'm a media helicopter and I also run officials up here so they can get a look at all the devastation. And I go. Well, you look kind of bored. And he goes tell you what you guys got 50 bucks each. I'll give you a ride. I go, are you serious? He goes, I will take you on the route I've been taking. You know the timber people, government officials and investigators that are all doing this research on the mountain. So we went for a ride. It was unbelievable. I had a video camera.
Speaker 3:What was unique about it and I don't think Dewey knew this he actually flew the route and back as to what became the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, I mean, and it was just within a mile or two of taking off. I was like how close are we to the ground? This is just so weird, with the trees being gone and, like you said, mario, it looked like a surface of immune. Here's how unknown it was to the average human and American. At Mount St Helens, jimmy Carter came out to have a firsthand look at all the devastation. He got in a chopper, was flying and saying, oh my gosh, just look at all these trees down. Just looks terrible. And the pilot said wait a minute, mr President, you're looking at what's been a clearing of warehouse or timber. We are not even close to the devastation of what the blast of Mount St Helens did, so imagine that he's looking at a clear cut and thinking well, this is what the mountain did.
Speaker 3:He went no, no, no, no. No. Even government officials and a president was to such devastation of a mountain and, like you said, it looked like the surface of the moon Real quick. I remember one point when Dewey was flying, we got close to what is now Johnston Ridge and this is where Johnston was when he said Vancouver, vancouver, this is it. The force of the eruption came so hard against what's now Johnston Ridge. It took all the trees, the growth, the dirt from the actual mountain itself, scraped it clean down to rock and pushed it up and over the backside of the ridge. The backside of the ridge was still full of green trees, bushes and the whole bit, but on that face that was facing the north area of Mount St Holmes, it was completely gone. I'll never forget that vision.
Speaker 2:You know, when you talked about Harry Truman's Road. Now is that the same road that goes to Johnson Ridge?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the one where you come to Coldwater Lake, which, what I was told, too, is. Some of the water of this Coldwater Lake was actually part. I don't know if it was Spirit Lake or some other body of water, but the force of Mount St Helens actually took all this water up and over a ridge to create a brand new lake, and this is what is now Coldwater Lake.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the force of the mountain.
Speaker 3:And again, when I go back to this, dewey, the chopper pilot, and he knew this stuff because he'd been up there back and forth with a lot of the officials and the government people and the investigators and was told that, and again years and years later, when I did the Spirit Lake Highway with Brother Bob, we were traveling the road and I go why is this so familiar?
Speaker 3:He goes Mark, this is like the exact flight pattern that Dewey took us and he took us all the way into the crater, you know. And then we saw the smoke coming out of the little growth of the inside of the volcano and I said what's the rule on your flight plan here? And he goes we got 13 seconds in the crater and out. It was just so weird, mario, because it was like perception of how far is the ground below us, how high, what are the altitude here. And we were in the crater of Mount St Helens and I could look up to see, you know, part of the ridge there on the southeast, southwest that was still intact because, as we know, most of that force went north and northeast toward Giacomo and Spokane and that's where all your ash was flying that May 18th.
Speaker 2:It's amazing when you look at the devastation of what a volcano could do, and we were working to get someone from the USGS to come on the show. They're extremely busy right now but maybe we'll have someone come on at a later date mark. When I look at pictures from saint helens and it's been such a long time I know there's another road that goes to spirit lake with a, with a um, with an area where you can park and kind of hang out, kind of like Johnson Ridge. It's kind of eerie to me to think that in these spots of what they thought was going to happen, I mean, if this happened on a Monday or a Tuesday, the loss of life could have been a lot worse. A Tuesday, the loss of life could have been a lot worse. You know there would have been forest service, uh, people, uh, that may have been uh working at that point in time, because it was still huge logging at that point in time with Weyerhaeuser and a lot of their trucks, um were were obviously, you know, demolished during the eruption. Uh, it's just awe-inspiring to think that 44 years ago, which seems like a long time ago, um, that the area has really changed.
Speaker 2:You know, just going back to, uh, the pandemic taking, you know, doing a family trip down to St Helens and to me, when I drove in Mark, it was interesting to see the growth of the forest that had been planted, that the trees looked like Legos to me because I don't know what it was, but it was like they were carbon copies of each other. But it didn't look like normal old-growth forest. It looked too manufactured, it looked fake, it didn't look as natural as it should because human hands touched it and planted these seeds, these seedlings which are now middle-aged forest. It's weird. As you drive in, if you're coming through to go to johnson ridge, you'll see it. You'll understand what I'm talking about the, the you'll start to see as you start to cross the bridge and I believe that's the toodle, I think that's the bridge that goes over and you'll start to see the forest, but it doesn't look right to me.
Speaker 2:You'll see that the eye has a problem. Like it looks like legos, you'll just see. You're like wow, that's just, it doesn't look natural. Um, when you look at this now, there are some legendary stories. Mark that. When we talk about the eruption of mount St Helens which is always fascinating because I think you were what were you doing in the 80s? Were you working in radio at that point in time? Were you disc jockeying at that point?
Speaker 3:I was in pursuit of getting a job in eastern Washington because I couldn't find anything in hometown Seattle. On Friday I get a call from a station in Yakima. Mark, I think you're what we're looking for. I go, great, I'm packed, I'm ready to go. I could be there this afternoon, about three, four hours drive from Seattle. And no, that's okay, mark, just make it Monday. You know we'll have a little meeting and a whole bit.
Speaker 3:Well, I never made it to Yakima Monday, mario and everybody, because on Sunday something called Mount St Helens decided to do more than just a little burp. So I tried to make a call Monday. I tried Tuesday to get ahold of the program director in the station in Yakima. Wednesday, finally connected and I said so I got the gig, I'm coming over. And they said Mark, you can't even get over here, we don't even know what we're dealing with. So we're just going to take the position and just mix it up with the staff we have. We don't even know when you can even get over here.
Speaker 3:And at that time I'm getting a call from a buddy of mine, long time pal from my boyhood days. He and his father were just north of Moses Lake that Sunday morning at a popular area of destination, of recreation and fishing called Sun Lake State Park. And they were on the Blue Lake at about 8 am that morning and I said, charlie, what was it like for you? And he said you know, I'm sitting there fishing with my dad and he says, mark, it was blue sky and sunshine, typical weather that time of year for eastern Washington. And all of a sudden we just heard this big roar of thunder, but it went so deep and it was so long term, and then we started looking. If you've ever been to sunlight, it's kind of like what I call the.
Speaker 3:Washington state version of the Grand Canyon. You're down in the coolies and suddenly they looked up and there was this big, muddy, gray looking cloud. But it was moving quickly and they thought well, that can't be a thunderstorm, it just looks too dirty. Look at these clouds and they're just kind of like a raging fire of smoke, but yet such a high altitude. And then he said we didn't know what to do, so we were in our rowboat with a little kicker motor and we went off the shore. By the time we got to shore and pulled the boat up on the beach and we're going to load it on top of the van, suddenly the sunshine disappeared and it started getting dark. Then we noticed, but didn't know at that time what was happening. But this is when the ash began to fall and they were just covered in it and thinking what is this stuff? Did a bomb go off? Is there a war? They of course knew about Mount St Helens. There was word that it might have a little eruption, but you think you're so far away with where the mountain is, compared to north of Moses Lake, which is probably a good three, three, four hours away from the actual site and then pursued to get down the road and said it was like driving in a fireplace with all the ash. They made it 20 miles to Afreda. That's where state patrol stopped them and said we've got shelter over here. Yeah, we're confirming, mount St Helens blew up and we don't know how long you're going to be here or the safety of being out in the dark and all this ash. So grab a mask, get indoors and wait for further instruction.
Speaker 3:And it's just one of many, many, many stories. And you know the the other part of it too was. It's just the stories that are still being identified, Like right now, in 2024, I guarantee you can go anywhere northeast of Mount St Helens, go as far as Spokane, get out there on the eastern side of the state of Washington, maybe out where there's not a plowed field, and come deep, maybe about 10, 15 feet, and you'll find something different. In the soil and in the dirt you will find about a foot of ash. That still persists in many parts of eastern Washington and I know many farmers were worried real quick, mario about this and what was going to do to all the crops the apple crop, maybe up near wenatchee, of course we got a lot of corn, uh, in our state and other products that we rely on for the economy. And it turned out years later that all this ash actually enriched all of our farming in eastern washington and actually gave them a boost to a better crop. So that was one positive from the eruption.
Speaker 2:You know, it's funny when you go back and think about this. There was loss of life and what's interesting is the legendary story. If you know or maybe you don't, everybody knows about Harry Truman and I know people who look this up think it's the former president. It's not the former president as wikipedia says. It's not. It was an old man, him and his wife. They settled down at spirit lake and they built themselves a lodge right and they had built everything from the ground up, which they almost lost, I think, once, and rebuilt.
Speaker 2:And you know, truman lost his wife and I think I think he knew that. He was at the point where he's like, if I leave, I have nothing left, and he, from watching interviews with harry, I think he was scared to death about the volcano. I think he said that he had different, uh, places for him to hang out. He had little volcano tunnels that he was going to run to if he needed to um to protect himself. But I believe that the volcano was a match none else could ever. I mean there was nothing that he could have done to save himself. Let's listen to a piece of Harry Truman, real quick, mark, and we'll make comments on this.
Speaker 4:Here's Harry Truman no, I'm not going to leave, damn right, I'm not going to leave, I'm going to stay here. If I left, tell me, if I left this place and lost my home, I'd die in a week. I couldn't live, I couldn't extend it. So I'm like that old captain. I got him going down the ship. I said if the damn thing takes this mountain, I'm going along with it.
Speaker 3:I mean, what a character. If I remember, his wife's name was Edie, I believe, and he had a good point. I mean, I can't remember his exact age, but he was just a very excited and very good-shaped elder, I would say, and became a spokesperson for the whole eruption worry that we were all having because we weren't sure. You know, scientists and the USGS were saying, harry, this could blow you off the mountain. And he's like you know my wife, I buried her up here. So if it's to be that I'm buried up here with her, then that's what it is. And going back to that flight I had with Dewey, we flew over where he said that you know, the Spirit Lake Lodge destination recreation site was where Eric Trimlin was buried and it has to be at least two miles deep of where he's buried. And you just think of the folks long-term living up there and running the Spirit Lake Lodge. You know what a great place for him to be with his wife and just survive that mountain. You know, and you go back to the weird things about Mount St Helens, mario, and I know you're going to get into that I remember one pilot with the USGS when they were in there trying to figure out all the bodies that were perhaps people you know that were in the area.
Speaker 3:And Dick Steele Ray had said okay, we've got a red zone, we've got a blue zone, whatever. If you apply and have a waiver that says a state and all these government officials aren't responsible, it's your own risk. You enter, you can access the area. And, of course, after hearing Harry Truman, how many times the media put him on the air, people thought well, this guy, he's wise, he's been up there, he doesn't think it's going to blow. So let's go for a drive out in the woods and we'll start some logging that we need to take care of. For Weyerhaeuser Well, so sadly we lost a lot of lives.
Speaker 3:But again, another pilot with USGS, when he was recovering bodies, he was finally told you know, okay, now let's go back. We think we got all the bodies taken. Let's see what we can do for animals. And I'll never forget somebody was rolling camera and he said I'm looking at some of the strangest things I've ever seen in nature. He said I found a very large pond of water that looked very clean. And he's flying over this thing at a high altitude. And he looks down, mario, he says I've never seen cougar, bear, coyote and other animals, all drinking from the same pond, and the predators are not attacking the less fortunate animals around the water. It's like they all knew like something went wrong. We need to survive. Uh, the game plan is everybody's sharing this and then we'll go back and try to have a normal life. And he didn't get pictures. He did not have a camera with him at the time oh man, that would have been awesome to see.
Speaker 2:It's like Mother Nature took over the instinct for these animals. The survival of obviously the fittest really kicked in. And you know, the unique opportunity to see this with the own human eye is a rare occurrence in itself. To see this with the own human eye is a rare occurrence in itself. What's crazy is that none of those animals they, I mean, they probably were I, you know, we always talk about how humans are inferior, where this superior intellect. But we know that these animals had the intuition or knew something was going on, but to for them to all be gathering and they're like, hey, all right, everyone's on a timeout, we're giving a hall pass to drink some water because at this point in time I bet you they're covered in ash and barely just you know they survived. What happened is, you know, a huge, huge eruption.
Speaker 3:Well, it just devastated everything. Think about the animals that rely on. You know, a cougar has to have its nourishment, but does chase down a deer or a rabbit? The same thing with a coyote. You've got elk and deer, some of the biggest herds in the state. There's nothing around for them. They have to head for lower country and try to figure out what just happened. What direction do you go? I mean, just it was, you know, the slate is clean, basically here in that north-northeast direction of the blast of Mount St Helens.
Speaker 3:And it was just I relay it to you know, many years going back to my father who grew up in Montana. His backyard was Yellowstone and in the early seventies was the first time in the winter they opened Yellowstone National Park to the public. So he said you know, mark Bob, we're going to go on a trip. And we went on a snowmobile trip, and a snowcat trip as well, into Yellowstone all the way to Old Faithful. And it was New Year's Eve at 72, 73. We stood right at Old Faithful to watch that thing go off every 55 minutes and we sat there with a ranger. Amazing, nobody else was there. It was dark but the moon was out. But to be next to a geyser if you ever go to Yellowstone to see how this thing on its own just explodes with this hot water and the steam and it's shooting up, you know, 60 feet, 100 feet high.
Speaker 3:And then you think about this big view we have here in southwest Washington known as Mount St Helens. I'm like I just couldn't imagine being anywhere near that thing the morning it went off. I know I ski a lot. I tell you Crystal Mountain, which is one of the popular resorts just north of well, it's due east, right in the shadow of mount rainier, yeah, and from the top, from the top there of what they call rainer express, you can see mount adams, you can see what is now left of mount st helens, mount rainier, of course, right there to the west, here about four miles, and then mount baker, to the north.
Speaker 3:And there were people up there on that high ridge that day that watched the mountain blue, and thank goodness the wind was blowing the other direction, otherwise they would not be here to tell their story. But there were these people that took pictures and more pictures and stories that people have never shared because no one's asked them or they just kept it to themselves and figured. Everybody knew all there was to the eruption and I'm sorry, 2024, we're still learning stories, we're still learning more about the mountain and, uh, things that were lost that day in total, mount saint helens released 24 megatons of tnt, the thermal energy of seven of which were in direct result of the blast.
Speaker 2:This is equivalent to 1,600 times the size of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. To think that the loss of life, especially the two, the guy who said Vancouver, vancouver, this is it. That was the guy who there was two people. The guy who radioed in Vancouver, vancouver, which was Johnson, I believe right. Yeah, johnson, that's who. There was two. The two people.
Speaker 2:The guy who radioed in vancouver, vancouver, which was johnson, I believe right yeah, johnson, that's who that was yeah, and then there was another gentleman who was uh on a ham radio, who was taking uh photos, and I think he was on a ham radio and I think he was on I don't know if he was on cold starter, cold water one, or where he was at, but he was not able to evacuate in time where johnson was just vaporized, uh, with that pyromastic cloud that just incinerated that whole, that whole area.
Speaker 2:Um, the devastation from which came out of that landslide because that's what happened, the fight, the earthquake hit, the 5-1 earthquake, you have this, you have this earthquake that's 5.1 on the richter scale triggered the collapse of the summit of the north flank of mount st helens, which formed the largest landslide in recorded history. Mark, it just blows my mind. And then the entire pyromancer cloud comes out. Just the force and energy of that was just why you see all these trees that are gone, uh, and you see, you know, the further you go out, the trees, eventually, because of the, the force changing of that blast, eventually they started to lay down and then eventually they it was like singed, and the trees, the limbs of the trees are still there, but they're just, there's nothing left, it's just like they look like toothpicks.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, I'll go back to you. Know, I was gonna say if you go back to being a kid where you're playing with clay and somebody says, build a volcano, and you have this vision of what you think a volcano looks like, that's what Mount St Helens will look like. If there was a volcano that had a profile of a volcano among your Mount Rainiers, your Mount Bakers and all the rest of them, it was a perfect profile of the volcano. Is Mount St Helens. And real quick. I'll mention we talked to Spirit Lake, memorial High. Again, I guess you're closest to Mount St Helens, johnson Ridge Observatory. You go by Coldwater Lake, whatever. I don't have a map with me everybody or with Mario here.
Speaker 3:If you look on a map of Washington State, try to find a lake on the south area from the Mount St Helens blast zone. It's called Swift Reservoir and this was a lake my dad would take us to back in the day before the eruption, which again primitive, uh, old growth, very thick woods. But there's a road that passes the swift reservoir and continues to the east and then it's a logging road but I think warehouser paved it as a one-lane road and it takes you along the south east side of mount st helens, of course, in the blast zone but away from mountain, and then heads north and you're on the east slope and you'll get to a point where you can see what is left of Spirit Lake and you'll continue north and then you'll get to a point where you get back out to a main roadway. But it's back there that most people don't know this road exists and you can have access to it. But there's markers along the way and there's some primitive campsites where people and I want to believe it's been government officials and they'll say where you're standing right now, look to the, the height of this tree and it's a tree that survived, you know. At least it's still standing and they have a mark of it at about 50 feet or higher and they're saying that mark is from the mud flow that cruised through this area on the morning of may 18, 1980 with the eruption at a speed of over 100 miles per hour.
Speaker 3:Wow, and things like this you'll see and markers of people and I want to believe maybe it's the warehouse of people and others that were allowed to go in this area and the things that we're finding. But they have these markings along this road. But again, look for Swift Reservoir, Go east of that on the map and you'll see the Lying Road of Sort, and I know it's a road that Weyerhaeuser used, because they did. They went back in over the years and harvested most of those trees, as you described as toothpicks, that were just laying all over the various ridges and mountainsides for miles and miles and miles from that blast it's interesting because when you go back and think about this, uh, there is the lands to be untouched.
Speaker 2:It's been preserved. And uh, between, uh, the united states government and weyerhaeuser, who owned a large piece of that area, they ended up doing a transaction to turn what is now what they call the Mount St Helens Memorial Area or whatever, to preserve the area within the blast zone. So the United States government took over that area, traded with Mount St Helens, traded with Weyerhaeuser the forest, so that they would be able to preserve this area. Now, when you think about this Mark, this area hasn't been really touched. There's been some research, that's been done, clearly, but the land has just been doing its own thing over time and, of course, the volcano has, you know, has been active this entire time.
Speaker 2:People say, oh, it's not an active volcano, these are active volcanoes and I think when you were talking about how Mount St Helens was this perfect volcano or this perfect mountain, I believe they used to call it the, the mount fuji of, uh, you know, east of whatever, because it was very similar to mount fuji. It looked very much like mount fuji. I think they called it like the east mount fuji or some. They made some parallel to mount saint helens and mount fuji, looking very similar, uh, back in the uh 70s ands or, you know, late 70s or whatever however that played out. But I do recall everyone called Mount St Helens the Mount Fuji of the United States. When you think about this, mark, we live in a very active area. Think about this oh, you know, you got mount saint helens, you got adams, you have rainier, you have um hood, you have glacier, uh, you know. And then you have baker up north, uh, it's. I mean, we got some, we got some Mount Shasta up there, we got some volcanoes around here. You know, we got some.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, we learned in school. The Pacific Rim is what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:And yeah, and any one of these can go. I mean up before Mount St Helens blew and even to this day we still hear of steam plumes and smell of sulfur. Up at Mount Baker they figured that would be the first one to ever explode and I remember, you know we talk about the eruption of May 18th 1980 in Mount St Helens. But I go back to the first worry I had when I watched TV in March of that year and it was in March 18th of 1980, when there was a hole that appeared on the top of Mount St Helens and there was nothing coming out of it and people were flying over going whether it was some kind of a pop. There was a small earthquake that people detected of USGS and they said something's going on at Mount St Helens.
Speaker 3:And when they flew over I don't know if you recall the first photo show just a small hole, I'm going to say it was the size of maybe a football field in round, just like a small hole. And hopefully that would be the first sign of what you described as this major mud slide, rock slide eruption of Mount St Helens that came along in May. And I actually crack up to it because of the elevation of Mount St Helens. I want to say before the blast it was around 9,000 feet or higher up on top of the peak. But they said a lot of the plants and small trees that were buried underneath the snow, because in May you still have quite a bit of snow in the Cascades, including there at the top of Mount St Helens. But a lot of that survived because it was protected from heat of sort being so deep in the snow from that winter of 1980. I mean talk about phenomena that's.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Now, the stories and myths and legends that continue to talk about what we know as, uh, some very big legends. I know that there are people that are still doing investigation work in regards to recovery of, you know, maybe family heirlooms of victims, and I know they. There are people that are doing research and going out to find other items out there that maybe belong to family members. Uh, you know they'll. They have found different things just buried, you know, using a detector.
Speaker 2:What's interesting to me, when you think about this, that they actually sent a crew to clean up the wildlife that had perished that day and probably, you know, days after the eruption, because of lack of oxygen, food and whatnot, because of lack of oxygen, food and whatnot, the, the loss of life of wildlife was. I, I don't, I, I'm still looking for this mark, but what's interesting to me is the myth that was, or the legendary story that was talked about, of what we know and and this is something that I know people get really upset about. We've had a couple texters call in and be like, oh, you talk about Bigfoot too much. Look, you know, bigfoot should probably be the mascot for the state of Washington. It really should be.
Speaker 3:Well, again, leading up to Mount St Helens, dixie Lee Ray, who many people around the Northwest remember.
Speaker 3:She used to work with the Pacific Science Center, which is always a fun destination at the Seattle Center side of the World's Fair in 62, which is one of the buildings that survived a profitable World's Fair, and she was one of the first to say, you know, as governor at that time, that we need to, you know, put some rules in Kamanek, because this pretty much was St Helen's area and this is where most people reported sightings and weird calls and screams at night that they couldn't identify.
Speaker 3:And, as governor of the state of Washington, she too believed there was such a creature known as, but there were just too many people that had stories that had no connection to each other. You can just tell them somebody's experience and there's no way they can put these stories and you've heard them over the years, mario as well as myself and, uh, you know I thought till you're up that day that, okay, here goes what was the number one spot for some kind of a sighting experience or something you could not explain, which people would tie back to the legendary sasquatch uh, that day we're looking at 32 different species of small animal mammals that were thought to be living near mount st helens and only 14 were known to have survived the eruption.
Speaker 2:that's crazy 32 different, uh, small mammal and only 14 survived. That's pretty big. I mean, there was loss of deer and whatnot and the story. I love that story, mark, and you can't find it online as much anymore. In regards to the two gentlemen who were brought in to watch and I'm not sure why you would have two guardsmen come to watch carcasses that were being brought in during the night if it was, if they called it a special operation back in those days I don't know that there's anything special that you need to be watching. In regards to wildlife, loss of life, of wildlife, okay, yes, maybe they're securing the perimeter of something that I understand, but why, what? What was? Why did they need two guardsmen to watch over the carcasses of deer and elk and bear and rams and everything else that may have been brought to the pile? What's interesting to me, mark, is the legendary—.
Speaker 3:Well, the thing I'm thinking about is recovery. In 1980, most of the choppers that were used for recovery of the bodies and to be involved with the rescue were actually over in Ikema. They were over there doing drills and what have you. So they had to wait a couple of days before they could take their assignments and, as you said, come and recover what bodies could be found human bodies around the mountain. But then they were told to go on a special mission and that is, let's recover some of the animals around the mountain because of, maybe, the blast.
Speaker 3:There's no way for these bodies to decompose or nature take its course and clear the forest lands, like we often hear. When you're out hiking, have you ever seen the remains of a deer, a bear, a squirrel in the woods? No, nature takes care of it. Within hours and it's gone and you can't even tell the little squirrel was there. Well, this was the same thing they had of the legend of Bigfoot, whatever, but I'm thinking the two guards and the National Guardsmen who were there. And then I heard from a friend who had a son, whose good friend was among those that were watching these choppers with these big cardonets, and it was kind of bloody, let's just say, to see, you know, legs, heads, body parts of all these animals. But then there was one other area, mario, that seemed to be restricted, and you know about that. Why don't you share?
Speaker 2:It's interesting that we talk about this because at this point this restricted area was, these two guardsmen came and I believe they were from the air force guard and they were given machine guns and they're like why do we need machine guns?
Speaker 2:We're we're air guardsmen, we don't need this. They're like you're gonna need this to, you know you're here to, you're gonna be on watch, you're gonna sit here and watch and you don't see anything, don't say anything to anybody. And this story has been told, for I mean, we're talking 40 something years now and I don't think they I believe they said they could not talk and not to say a word for 30 something years, because by then it would be okay to talk about, but still the word has been out. I think the story became more come to life during the pandemic, because I think that's when this show started picking it up and I think that's when we started talking about it, mark. But the story now is hard to find on the internet, which is interesting to me because for some reason, they don't want people talking about this story. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We had Huey helicopters. We used that. We called that. He met a deer, an elk, bear, coot and being brought off the mountain. But then there was a Chinook helicopter and, through a friend again, a son who had connection with the National Guard, the Chinook flew with a car going out but it didn't land at the Kelso Airport landing zone where these other carcasses were being transported and taken care of. They were instructed to land in a different area of the airport and what was noted is like you said, mario, it was under guard from government officials, brought in, we'll just say like the Air Force or a higher ranking military outfit and arm to keep people away.
Speaker 3:And one of the guardsmen claimed he just didn't understand and understood what was going on and he made an approach on it and at one point, when that chopper landed, he looked up and right away those on the ground were setting up large tarps to block the view of where this cargo net was being set on the ground. He had a chance to take a look and he swears to this day what he saw in those nets were not the remnants of deer and elk and carcasses of animals from the slopes of Mount St Helens and surrounding forests. He said he could see what looked like a human hand but covered in hair. He could see large feet. Again that did not look look human but more of like a creature. And the net was full. And I'll leave it at that, with imagination I will tell you this.
Speaker 2:Uh, there was a document I uh just did some searching while you were doing your thing here. Uh, october 4th 2016, under the information freedom act. Uh, there was a letter from the usda uh that was released. Uh, this letter states that this is my response to your freedom information act uh request of electronic submission uh information that Bigfoot or Sasquatch bodies were discovered and recovered after the eruption of the Mount St Helens on 5 May 18, 1980. What sort of body disposal did the Forest Service undertake for the four-legged animal who were killed in the eruption? The this uh continues on. It says on august 29th uh, 2016.
Speaker 2:Uh this information freedom act you by phone to ask the clarification of the data range of the request of the information from 5 17 to 12 31 of 2000. During the conversation, you stated that you were interested in five or six months following the eruption. She informed you that the search for responsive documents were on underway at this time. The wildlife biologist uh concluded the search for the response of response of all locations that there were no documented reported of bigfoot or sasquatch carcasses and there were no projects to attempt to locate or recover any bodies. However, two documents consist of 50 pages that created by researchers outside the Forest Service are related to work done to locate carcasses such as elk deer. For the study they were conducting, there is 50 pages being preserved or provided for that person. So basically what they're saying is the USDA said there was no projects in regards to them doing anything in regards to recovery of the Sasquatch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and think about the recovery real quick. I remember okay. So we have 57 confirmed killed directly from the blast of may 8th. The count last I heard was around 1500 elk were killed, most of which recovered with those choppers, 5 000 deer and of course you continue on with the cougar and with the coyotes and a bunch of smaller animals, but again 12 million in hatcheries we're talking fish here right now and the devastation you know when it comes to even the bridges and and and smaller towns that were affected with some of the smaller buildings. So you have a lot of people in this recovery that were dealing with a lot. But then suddenly here is one cargo net and it's a helicopter that has two, with this unusual cargo landing at a different part of the coastal airport under restriction actions and under guard.
Speaker 2:Do you think Johnson Ridge will be open on the anniversary?
Speaker 3:Of this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you think the observatory will be open by May 18th?
Speaker 3:Well, I know last year was a concern, because there are people that it's in their blood. They have to be there on May 18th every year and have been for 39 years or whatever, and being the 40th. Now last year there was interesting enoughth every year and have been, you know, or you know 39 years or whatever, and being the 40th. Now last year there was interesting enough with the highway that was built, the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. That gets you all the way up to the closest as a civilian you can actually get without hiking on Mount St Helens, the Johnson Observatory. This is where David Johnson was on the mountain. Again, as we said, vancouver, vancouver, this is it.
Speaker 3:It was closed last year because they had a problem with one of the bridges and they did a temporary roundabout detour and that failed after some time. And then, of course, it was a problem with some winter weather and just the wrong conditions to repair that. I want to say by now they should have something of a detour. If not, they've repaired that one bridge because, as you've driven that highway, mario, there are, you know, some places.
Speaker 3:You're driving this thing and just think about a logging road. Maybe it took a dirt bike or an ATV and how it winds through the mountains and the curves and the cliffs and everything. This is the basically what they did with the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, I think as they paved it made it one lane each direction. You might have a turnout here and there and some guardrails, but other than that you'll cross some of the valleys getting up toward Mount St Helens that are very high and if you have any fear of height it'll get to you, especially one of the bridges that comes to mind that you cross, and you're just amazed how man was able to build this highway to get you so close to what is a phenomenon here in our lifetime, known as Mount St Helens, on the devastating May 18th.
Speaker 2:Well, it's unfortunate because it says the USDA Forest Service forest service, uh says johnson ridge is unreachable right now yeah, okay, so located off of state highway 504. The 52 miles of road is unreachable right now. Unbelievable mark. I believe that you can. It's wild to me that you can't get there and I believe, if I looked correctly, one of the I forget which. What was that lake? The reservoir right there, coldwater Lake?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's Swiftwater or Swift reservoir right, right the other, basically it's one of these lakes that we have, yeah, and if you look at the map again, look at the roadway that goes by swift reservoir. They're on the south area, just to south of mount st helens, right, and it basically goes east and west and the access is fine because all the eruption went north and this is this area. Uh, in fact this is where people go to get hiking access now to go up on top of the slope, you know, for Mount St Helens. But as you go east, past Sweat Reservoir, there is a roadway that turns off At least it was back in the 80s that I took and it takes you to the backside of Mount St Helens through the area that was not stated. That would be your southeast and direct east of Mount St Helens. And it continues up and I was amazed because they paved it.
Speaker 3:Think of a mountain road, one lane, but paved. And I want to thank Weyerhaeuser because they wanted to process some of the logs over the years, which they did. And of course, you get tired of driving a logging truck on dirt roads. Let's make it comfy and pave the road, but you can drive that highway and you'll come to primitive campsites that were still, you know a part of mount st helens back then along river, and again it comes through there and made markings of, like I said, you'll see a tree and you'll see a marking way up high, maybe with some paint or some kind of a marker, and the sign below saying what you're looking at there, at eight feet high, in that tree, which is just a skeleton of a tree, all life is dead but it's still standing. And they'll say this is where a lahar that's what we call these mud flows when a volcano blows. A lahar came through here that deep in mud, so let's say 80 feet deep, and the closer you are to the mountain, of course the speed was incredible and the one I looked at. They claimed where you're standing.
Speaker 3:A lahar rolled through here on May 18, 1980, at 100 miles per hour. Imagine being there even in your RV, if not a camping tent, and you hear this warning like what the heck? Look out, and here's this monster web of mud and the video we've seen taken that day from some of the local media. They were, you know, the Toodle River. This was the down flow there, coming to the west of Mount St Helens, and the waves were high. We see, you know homes being brought down the river, smashed to some of the bridges crossing the river, but this was nothing to what was happening on some of those rivers in the back country from Mount St Helens and Adams that same day. But try that road. I would try that on the anniversary that should be open, unless we've got restrictions there now, because so many people know about it.
Speaker 2:I doubt it, mark. I mean, I'm looking at it now and it looks like this would be the best bet and it'll get you all the way up to the lake. It looks like from the Google Maps here up to the lake. It looks like, uh, from the google maps here, uh, I have to say, mark, it's, uh, it's quite sad that a such a phenomenal um observatory learning tool for kids, uh, the science to get you as close as up, personal up to the volcano, like that, um, it's something else, from a different world. It's like it's, it's interesting. When you get there and you like you're looking at the observatory from the, the bay windows there, which are beautiful, just all that glass it just seems like the volcano just goes right there, like it's right there and it's still very far away, but it's like man when you're out, it is the most impressive thing you will ever come across in life and you're like you think humans are superior. This volcano just will put you in a place where you're like, wow, this is what you can do. This is amazing like it is. So I don't it's. It's incredible to even think, even 40 something years later, when you look at this, this volcano, that what this did and, like you know, as you're kind of walking around on the trails you can't do that right now because you can't get to Johnson Ridge, you know this is me talking about the experience from like 2020. But to be able to go up there and we kind of did some little, you know, kind of walking, where you can kind of walk around on the trail, it just seems like you're walking on another planet, it like mars or like or the moon, just because of the, the soot, the, the, the fine ash and pumice that was there and the rocks crunching underneath your feet.
Speaker 2:I I'll have to post this picture. It's one of my screensavers mark. It is just everyone's like oh, where'd you get that picture from? I'm like I took it. They're like wow, and you can see like the little life of the little sucklings coming through, breaking the surface to get the sunlight. It's just one of the most impressive pictures, not because I'm any type of professional photographer, but just because it just looked fantastic, uh, to see these loads. And you said, yeah, to see these little.
Speaker 3:I was going to say, just as you described that you started. You know the program here. I mentioned the fact that on st helens you know that the blast of it was, uh, the crater from the eruption one mile wide, two miles long, you said. One cubic mile of rock Works out to be about 12% of the top of the mountain removed from the eruption. And I mentioned that. The altitude before the eruption of about 9,000 feet, it was 9,677 feet. If you hiked to the top of Mount San Jose before the eruption it was reduced from 9,600 feet down to 8,300 feet, so you lost 1,370 feet of mountaintop. Think about that. Next you go for a hike and somebody says, oh yeah, we're going to go up about 2,000 feet in elevation here. And think about, as you hike up, you know, a mile wide, two miles long, an estimated one cubic mile of rock and mountain. That's 12% of Mount St Helens removed in a matter of seconds in that eruption.
Speaker 2:Oh man, Mark, it's always fun to get to hang out with you and chat about one of our favorite things.
Speaker 2:And something that you always have every year. I always come to the radio to listen when you're doing your thing on Saturdays at Northwest News Radio on the sister station over at, across the hall to talk about what is the eruption of Mount St Helens and just to remind everyone in the Pacific Northwest or maybe someone who's listening to kind of remind them of, hey, it's the anniversary of this really rare thing that has happened and hasn't been recorded. I mean, in modern-day history this is something that no one's ever seen and we haven't recorded. Remember, as you hike, treat the areas with respect, and I know right now that mount rainier and and I think you said this on the radio just the other day that you got to have a reservation to get up there it's it's incredible that you have to have a reservation to go hiking now at these national parks, mark, yeah, well I want to credit, you know, with the work of the, as you know, with public television tv, when kim burns came out with the national parks.
Speaker 3:You know with the work of the, as you know, with public television tv, when kim burns came out with the national parks, you know, and, and that whole series really motivated for everybody to get out and discover our national parks and the result is people are getting out there. Um, but just a quick reminder, like you said right there, you know, leave it the way you found it. I remember, during the pandemic, many people that have never been up to Mount Rainier happened to go up there and on hikes. And I went up there for an annual hike and a camp out. We do it every year among the extended family I have.
Speaker 3:And we got into the Sunrise area, which is there on the east side of Mount Rainier early morning, did our hike up on top to the what we say the snow line. But we were dressed for it. You know, we had hiking boots, hiking sticks, hats, we had supplies, because things can happen. Mount Rainier, for example, it makes its own weather. I mean, imagine that I'm out in a huge like Mount Rainier, that it makes its own weather. But I was amazed, mario, coming down, how many people were attempting the same hike I had just done and I'm experienced and I got the energy to do it. But they were in sandals, they were in shorts, they were in t-shirts, not realizing the higher you go. Even here in the middle of summer it's going to get cold.
Speaker 3:And it disturbed me when I got back to the parking lot and I met with one of the rangers and I said boy, you've got a busy time. He goes yeah, the pandemic people are coming out for the first time. He said, mark, it's really disturbing because some people are going even further away, from Mount Rainier to some of the remote hikes and somebody leaves a trash bag, you know, maybe a lunch. So then people add to that and he says we can't believe we have to close trails because of garbage that people are leaving and in other items out in the forest where, again, they're not patrolled regularly. There is no garbage service. How do we remind people, even if you're brand new, this is a gift we have here in the Northwest, whether it's Mount St Helens and the Spirit Lake Highway and a chance to see what happened 44 years ago. But again, it's a gift. Treat it like a gift, so others can enjoy it too.
Speaker 2:Pack it in, pack it out. Yeah, for sure, pack it in, pack it out as we wrap things up here from the Pacific Northwest. It's always a pleasure to get to hang out with you, mark. I know we don't always do it all the time, but especially on the anniversary of Mount St Helens it's just fun to be able to hang out. You can check out Mark Christopher weekend mornings on our sister on the flagship or the sister station Northwest News Radio, or you can hear him. You're still hanging out with. You're still hanging out with Carlson right in the morning. Seeing do I have lost Mark Christopher? But you can check him out weekends on our sister flagship station on 97.7 or AM 1000. Tune in and listen to Mark. For my entire team, mark Christopher, sofia Magana and myself, mario Magana, be sure to look up at the sky because you never know what you might see. Good night.
