Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
Join us in celebrating the long-awaited autobiography of civic activist Jim Ellis,
at the Seattle Public Library's Central Branch on June 2nd at 2:00 p.m.
The legacy of Jim Ellis continues to impact our region. HistoryLink has assembled a panel of civic leaders, Sally Jewell, Gary Locke, Eric Liu, and Girmay Zahilay, whose work spans many decades, to discuss the influence of Jim Ellis on our region and his relevance today. The discussion will be moderated by C.R. Douglas.
The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP at EventBrite.
This Week Then
5/16/2024
Volcanic Blast
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Two months earlier, the mountain began venting steam after being rattled by a 4.2-magnitude earthquake, and by the end of April a bulge had appeared on the northern slope. Geologists monitored the volcano closely, knowing that it could blow at any time -- which it soon did, with explosive force.
The lateral blast was so powerful that trees and vegetation in a six mile radius to the north were vaporized. The shock wave moved farther out, stripping trees of bark and branches and knocking their trunks to the ground like toothpicks. An avalanche of rocks, debris, snow, and ice surged down the mountain, and within minutes covered a 24-square-mile area hundreds of feet deep. Fifty-seven people lost their lives, including resort owner Harry R. Truman, who refused to evacuate.
The upward blast was just as intense. Fifteen minutes after the eruption, the ash plume reached 15 miles into the sky and was blown eastward. In just over an hour, Yakima was plunged into darkness. The cloud continued moving east, dumping ash everywhere. Travelers were forced off the highways, which caused tremendous problems in Ritzville, more than 200 miles away from the volcano. The ash cloud took three days to reach the East Coast and 15 days to girdle the globe.
Despite the devastation, ecological recovery has developed over time. Weyerhaeuser Company and the Forest Service replanted trees, but nature also took its course, and much of the flora returned at its own pace. The 1980 eruption provided a large-scale experiment that has taught scientists and land managers much about ecological disturbance and ecosystem management. In 1982, the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was created thanks to the efforts of Representative Don Bonker.
Designed to Last
In 1895 the University of Washington moved from downtown Seattle to its present location, which at the time was heavily forested and undeveloped. The campus took root on the northern section of the property, but as the university grew its regents sought ways to develop the rest of the grounds without breaking their budget. They found their golden opportunity when Seattle began making plans to host a World's Fair.
UW supporters like professor Edmond Meany advocated using the campus for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition fairgrounds in order to gain new buildings and to clear and grade the forested acreage for future use. The regents agreed, and on May 17, 1907, they approved John C. Olmsted's plan for the grounds.
The A-Y-P was a huge success, as was Olmsted's layout for it. On May 18, 1915, the UW regents approved a new plan by architect Carl F. Gould, who built on Olmsted's legacy while adding important changes of his own. The campus has undergone many changes since then, but the Olmsted "footprint" can still be seen today, more than a century later.
News Then,History Now
Sailing on In
On May 16, 1864, a ship carrying 11 young women arrived in Seattle from New England under the escort of Asa Shinn Mercer. This first of two contingents of Mercer Girls had an instant impact on Seattle's mostly male frontier culture, and included the town's first public-school teacher. It would later inspire the TV series Here Come the Brides. And Asa Mercer is remembered these days too, appropriately enough, with a Seattle middle school named in his honor.
Stinking of Gin
On May 20, 1885, much of Whatcom's business district was destroyed by fire, but local tipplers were able to save most of the town's liquor supply. And on May 20, 1958, a massive fire destroyed the Seattle Cedar Manufacturing plant in Ballard, and carried pieces of burning lumber up to five feet long as far as two miles away.
On May 18, 1952, Paul Robeson performed at an outdoor concert for more than 25,000 people at Peace Arch Park in Blaine. His passport had been confiscated due to his political views, which prevented his entry into Canada. Two days later, he was almost barred from speaking and performing in Seattle, but he overcame cold-war hysteria to make his voice heard.
"All Nature's wildness tells the same story: the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort, each and all, are the orderly, beauty-making love-beats of Nature's heart."