Unearthing the lost stories of Mount St. Helens | Oregon Field Guide (full episode)

sawmill. We continue climbing the ridge. With no tree cover, it is unrelentingly hot. And the likelihood of finding anything here in this expanse of the former blast zone seems like a needle in a haystack. How much longer? Because we're not there yet, right? No, I think it's around that ridge, it has to be like that. They search and search... And then, something catches Scott's attention. My God. It appears to be what Scott is looking for, a rusty engine covered in vegetation. MAN: You never have the tool you need when you need it. KEMERY: Yes. Matt documents the find with photographs and records the GPS coordinates.

Scott hopes this could be the powerhouse for Gerry Martin's motorhome. And for Scott, this would be his most important discovery yet. I hope it's Martin. It's a kind of closure. MAN: Exactly. Everything I've read ends with "no trace of Gerry or the RV of him was ever found." Standing here, thinking this could be the same place Gerry Martin stood on the morning of May 18 and, looking directly into the open mouth of the crater, I try to imagine what he witnessed. He began to narrate from the moment the

mount

ain began to shake until it hit David, until it hit him.

What he did was very important, not only to help warn the valley that an eruption was coming, but scientifically they were able to determine the speed of the eruption, the surge, according to his account. The volcano released a pyroclastic flow, a superheated inferno of gas and rock that crashed onto the landscape like a tsunami at more than 300 miles per hour and a searing temperature of more than 400 degrees. David Johnston had also picked up the radio. He only had a few seconds. In a panic attack, his last words: "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it." I heard the story as a child and read those words many times, but now they resonate with a more tangible reality.

Being here brings a somber understanding of this still raw landscape. From this spot I can easily see the ridge where David Johnston had been, the lookout known as Coldwater 2. I ask Scott to take me there. So David Johnston's trailer would have been around. And the Scout who brought him out here would have been around. Gerry Martin could see this place here, he could see the trailer. And from here, David Johnston could see Gerry Martin's motor home. In the photo of him with his legs sticking out, you know, smiling, you look at those photos and you know that area is doomed, you know he is doomed.

You know what happens eventually. And then being here, where the photos were taken, uh... it's kind of hard to put into words when you're... when you're right here. Wow. Destruction in the blast zone occurred within minutes as the

mount

ain exploded on its side to the north. It then began to boil upward into a plume of gray ash that rose miles into the sky. From a distance, this was the first time most people saw the St. Helens eruption that Sunday, including 5-year-old Scott, who was at home with his family in North Portland. In front of me was the eruption in the sky, and in the room, behind me, were the news that told us what was happening closer there.

Four devastating walls of water have swept through the Toutle River Valley, the fourth arrived this afternoon and is perhaps the most damaging of all. MAN: Get off the bridge! REPORTER: The Air Force 304th Rescue Squadron evacuated as many people as possible using Toutle High School as a landing base. REPORTER: It's so dangerous and so confusing at Mount St. Helens that even the experts aren't clear what happened. Rescue missions flew into the mountain in hopes of finding survivors. PILOT: Well, we have a car here on the left. Finally, the flight crews reached the north side. It doesn't even seem like the same country.

Nothing matches the map. Where is Spirit Lake? Is that from there? I can not believe this. We camped in this area. It's not like any place I've ever been before. REPORTER: Spirit Lake may no longer exist tonight. That's the word from the Forest Service. Five-year-old Scott hoped that Harry had arrived safely at his secret cave. And my dad surprised me on the stairs and said, "You're supposed to be in bed." I said, "Dad, it's dark now. What's Harry going to do?" He is old and he is probably hurt and alone. How are they going to find Harry in all this darkness?" And I was only 5 years old, but I knew enough watching the news all day with all the destruction and all the smoke and everything, I knew it was bad, but now the sun it was down, so you couldn't see how bad it was.

And I was worried how they were going to find Harry's cave. SMITH: There were over 140 mines in and around that area, which were mainly started in caves, so I would say in. to a large extent that Harry had a lot of them hidden. I mean, there are a lot of possibilities. There were quite a few things like that that Truman could get to on a boat, you know. Scott has been studying old maps of mining claims and using Google Earth. I'm searching Google Earth, and it seems very difficult. He thinks he has found what appears to be a cave entrance.

It could be a trick of the light, no. We are sure, but until we put our boots on the ground and get closer, we won't know 100%, so... Distances and terrain are the same thing. computer screen and something completely different at Mount St. Helens National Monument. This looks as horrible to me as it does on Google Earth. -Higher up is worse. -Excellent. As on our other expeditions with Scott, there is no trace here. My God. The landscape of 1980 was erased from the map and a new, dynamic one that continues to change was placed on it. MAWHIRTER: Hikes on the pumice plain or anywhere on the monument always take twice as long as you think, because this terrain is so difficult.

Like you think you're going the right way, and then you come across these eroded hillsides and trying to navigate is difficult. It's not nice. -Well. -KEMERY: Oh, my God. And because the hike here has taken so long, we won't really have time to get there before dark, but this is the location on the maps, and the rock is similar to the rock where we found other mines. this area, so it is very likely somewhere eroding. If we could get a little closer, maybe we could identify it a little more. It could be here or it could be there.

Well, the legend of Harry's Cave is another Truman story that will live forever, yes. And I think people will be looking for it for quite some time. It is important to think that one day someone will find it or identify it. And I won't be the one to say that it doesn't exist. The realistic part of my brain never expected to find the cave, but my imagination from my childhood in the '80s couldn't help but imagine a scene like in The Goonies. In Harry's cave we would find an old television, a lawn chair, and maybe even a bottle of whiskey and a John Deere cap.

And I realize that this is what keeps Scott on all these hunts. WAITT: Each of these

stories

has a mystery associated with it. You only know small fragments of the story. And you can say that some of the artifacts that were left behind are fragments, they are pieces. It is eroding, it is changing, it is going to open things up and show us part of the past that we did not know up there. As river flows change banks and winds erode, surviving fragments may emerge to the surface. The mountain can give up more pieces, more clues.

And until then, the story of the Mount St. Helens eruption is still being written... and the search continues. We are tenacious. We will not give up. We will do it again. The story you just watched was produced by two people, Ian McCluskey and Todd Sonflieth, who saw the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Now, when you're a kid and you see a volcano erupting in your backyard, that does something. . To you. And they both turned that experience into lifelong careers telling

stories

from the volcano. McCLUSKEY: I've been fascinated with Mount St. Helens my entire life. In fact, in 1980 I was too young to remember what the mountain looked like before it erupted, but I remember the eruption clearly.

We had a major eruption at approximately 8:32 this morning on Mount St. Helens. SONFLIETH: I was in high school at the time of the eruption and I remember my mom waking me up that Sunday morning and saying, "Hey, it's erupting, it's erupting! Come see, come see!" ". We had some ash around our house, and I remember my sister and I got into this little business we were going to do bottling the ash and selling souvenirs through the mail. McCLUSKEY: I think what's fascinating is that this is not ancient history. It's something Todd and I remember throughout our lives.

I got a tip from Mount St. Helens Institute that there were some guys walking around with metal detectors looking for artifacts from the 1980 eruption. Big deal, huh? McCLUSKEY: The main character, Scott, who is kind of the ringleader of this group, says something like, "Come on, let's go, let's go!" And like, "Hey, it's down the street!" SONFLIETH: That environment, off the trail, is very sandy. So if you think about trying to walk down a sand dune and then, you know, adding 40 or 50 pounds of gear on your back... SCOTT: It's not pleasant. -Well. -Oh Lord! SONFLIETH: What was that?

Seven miles we walked one day? -Yeah. -I think so at least. -Or… that was one way. -Yeah, I think... I think it was like 14 miles round trip or something like that. Well, I apologize, guys, for bringing you here for this. I had fun. SONFLIETH: These guys have investigated where the people who perished were at that time, so now they're trying to go back to those same places and doing their best to find any artifacts that are left, you know, maybe it's a piece of a trailer. My God! McCLUSKEY: And then we, about 40 years later, are standing on that same ridge and we see the remains of a rusty old engine and we know that Gerry Martin, who was probably the only person up there on that ridge, this is probably the house trailer where I was making those recordings.

And the story is revealed. And that's how we can tell a story about something as simple as guys taking metal detectors to look for old things buried in ashes and it becomes a portrait of lives

lost

on May 18 and a renewed sense of our connection to this mountain. I think that's why we love what we do and we love seeing the stories after we make them. In fact, we came back and thought, "Gosh, now that we've showered, that was a really fun trip." -Yeah. - You can now find many Oregon Field Guide stories and

episode

s online.

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