On May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, Washington, erupted! In March 1980, a series of volcanic explosions began at Mount St. Helens, escalated for nearly two months until a massive explosive eruption took place at 8:32 a.m. on May 18th. The explosion was the first volcanic explosion to take place in the contiguous United States since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. Although most people evacuated, about 57 people were killed, including a WWI veteran named Harry R. Truman, photographers Reid Blackburn and Robert Landsburg, and volcanologist David A. Johnston. Hundreds of square miles of land became a wasteland, causing over $1 billion in damage. The eruption is now often considered the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history!
