Steve G. Bisig, Photographer

Thirty years ago today, was the major eruption of Mt. St. Helens that changed the landscape of Southwestern Washington forever. Even though time has passed, I have vivid memories of that day’s events.

Prior to that memorable weekend, I was lucky enough to witness three steam eruptions during my travels through the area. I thought that was pretty cool at the time. Especially since nobody had any idea of about what was to come.

On the weekend Mt. St. Helens erupted, we were fishing at a bass tournament on Silver Lake in Cowlitz County. If you’re not familiar with Silver Lake, it’s about 30 miles West of Mt. St. Helens. From most of the lake, there are beautiful views of Mt. St. Helens.

On the Friday and Saturday before, we were hoping to see some activity, even something like a steam or ash cloud would be good. Little did we know what was to come.

On the Sunday morning of May 18th, 1980, we woke up very early in the morning to clear blue skies and calm waters. If I remember correctly, we were on the lake at around 6:00 A.M. to start the day’s fishing. Shortly after 8:00, my dad had the urge to head back to shore to take care of business. As we were motoring through the lily pads, my dad pointed at the mountain and said look!!! Just as I looked up, the eruption had just begun. What everybody has seen in the still photos of the initial eruption and landslide is what we witnessed from Silver Lake. Within seconds, Mt. St. Helens was engulfed in an ash cloud.

Once we arrived back to the resort, it was utter chaos. People were freaking out like the world was going to end. People were scrambling to get their boats out of the water and pack up their RV’s. My dad just watched very calmly. By this time, the lightening filled ash cloud pretty much blocked the morning skies. Luckily, no ash fell at our location, considering it was nearly over our heads.

It wasn’t long before we got the word that I-5 was closed at the Toutle River and we wouldn’t be going anywhere soon. So what did my dad do? We drove the boat over to a dockside convenience store, bought beer, and proceeded out into the middle of the lake where we anchored, drank beer and watched the mountain spew out ash. (Remember, times were different then and would not be acceptable today, well kind of).

Later in the day, the I-5 bridge reopened, we loaded up the boat, packed the camper and headed home to Puyallup.

Thinking back, I was in the right place, at the right time to first hand witness a significant event in Washington State history. Since volcanic activity is fairly rare in the continental United States, I consider myself one of the lucky ones to actually have the opportunity to see such an monumental natural event.