Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Iconic photo of Mount St. Helens and Ford Pinto, May 18, 1980:
Last edited Mon May 18, 2020, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)
Dick Lasher
From https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/07/26/the-story-behind-that-photo-of-the-pinto-in-front-of-the-mt-st-helens-eruption#comments
The story behind that photo of the Pinto in front of the Mt. St. Helens eruption
By Daniel Strohl on Jul 26th, 2019 at 4:00 pm
A towering plume of ash rises in the distance of the photo, swirling with menace and threat, lightning arcing within it. As if to accent the peril, the canyon of trees that frame the gray clouds themselves have gone dark toward their tops, occluded by unseen looming clouds of ash. One shaft of morning light still reaches the lower branches of the trees, splashing over a cut of greenery and the least probable thing in the photo: a red Ford Pinto with a blue dirt bike hitched to its bumper, angled across a forest road.
Even if you haven't been up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory near Mt. St. Helens, where one of the most puzzling photos of the volcano's May 1980 eruption is prominently displayed, you've no doubt seen the photo circulating on the Internet, stripped of all context save for the date and location. You've also no doubt wondered who took the photo, what were they doing up there in the first place, and whether they made it out alive. We did too, so we set out to dig for what answers we could. Some came easy; others not so much.
To begin with, pretty much all of the Pacific Northwest knew that Mt. St. Helens was about to erupt. Settlers in the area saw it erupt in the mid-19th century, and by early 1980, seismologists were monitoring a massive bulge on the volcano's north slope. Authorities had begun evacuating area residents from their homes as a precaution, though they couldn't keep campers from ringing the base of the volcano, especially over a sunny mid-May weekend.
Richard "Dick" Lasher spent that Saturday night packing some gear figuring he'd head out first thing in the morning to get a look at the mountain before it blew. His plan involved hitching his Yamaha IT enduro bike to the back of his Pinto, driving up to Spirit Lake, then exploring the area via dirt forest roads on the bike. He'd leave before dawn and arrive at the lake right at daybreak.
[...]
By Daniel Strohl on Jul 26th, 2019 at 4:00 pm
A towering plume of ash rises in the distance of the photo, swirling with menace and threat, lightning arcing within it. As if to accent the peril, the canyon of trees that frame the gray clouds themselves have gone dark toward their tops, occluded by unseen looming clouds of ash. One shaft of morning light still reaches the lower branches of the trees, splashing over a cut of greenery and the least probable thing in the photo: a red Ford Pinto with a blue dirt bike hitched to its bumper, angled across a forest road.
Even if you haven't been up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory near Mt. St. Helens, where one of the most puzzling photos of the volcano's May 1980 eruption is prominently displayed, you've no doubt seen the photo circulating on the Internet, stripped of all context save for the date and location. You've also no doubt wondered who took the photo, what were they doing up there in the first place, and whether they made it out alive. We did too, so we set out to dig for what answers we could. Some came easy; others not so much.
To begin with, pretty much all of the Pacific Northwest knew that Mt. St. Helens was about to erupt. Settlers in the area saw it erupt in the mid-19th century, and by early 1980, seismologists were monitoring a massive bulge on the volcano's north slope. Authorities had begun evacuating area residents from their homes as a precaution, though they couldn't keep campers from ringing the base of the volcano, especially over a sunny mid-May weekend.
Richard "Dick" Lasher spent that Saturday night packing some gear figuring he'd head out first thing in the morning to get a look at the mountain before it blew. His plan involved hitching his Yamaha IT enduro bike to the back of his Pinto, driving up to Spirit Lake, then exploring the area via dirt forest roads on the bike. He'd leave before dawn and arrive at the lake right at daybreak.
[...]
11 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
and one of my student's father was a national expert on one certain little bug (yeah, go figure!). The government/university flew him out several times within the next few years to keep track and survey the growth/rebirth of the area. His first trip back he brought jars of ash that we passed out to the kids in the room!
Amazing picture - I'd never seen it before. 
