40 years ago in Spokane: Small quake on Mount St. Helens signals ‘gigantic volcanic burp’ to come

Note to readers: For the next few Sundays, we’ll be going back 40 years, instead of the usual 100 years, to chronicle the news that was coming out of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.

The headline in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on March 22, 1980, didn’t seem too alarming: “Mount St. Helens Area is Rattled.”

An earthquake registering 4.1 on the Richter scale shook the seemingly inactive volcano, but officials downplayed the significance, noting that there were no reports of damage and “earthquakes are common in that area.”

Yet the tremors continued the next few days. On March 24, the Chronicle ran a headline that asked, “Mount St. Helens to Spout?” A University of Washington seismologist answered that question with a “maybe.”

“We’ve had an increase in the number of earthquakes near the mountain and that’s what one might expect if it’s going to erupt,” said the seismologist. “But that doesn’t mean it will. You won’t know for sure until it does, if it does.”

The Spokesman-Review ran a comical headline on March 27, 1980 – “Skiing Good? – Lava-ly!” – citing a tongue-in-cheek ski report that said skiing on the mountain was “very hot” and skiers should “dress in asbestos.” (There was no ski resort on the mountain.)

The laughter vanished later that day when Mt. St. Helens began to rumble in earnest. The Spokesman-Review ran a front page story on March 28 by reporter Robert L. Rose. His lead sentence has become legendary in local journalism circles.

“Mount St. Helens, a lady with a 123-year-old tummyache, erupted with a gigantic volcanic burp Thursday, a sound like a sonic boom heard 45 miles away.”

That certainly caught everyone’s attention. The rest of the story sounded some ominous notes.

“There was no sign of molten lava, but the eruption was monitored by scientists who worried that heat and jolting motion could set off mudslides and floods that could endanger three nearby dams and the whole valley,” wrote Rose.

The Spokesman-Review sent a photographer and reporter to circle the mountain in a single Cessna, and an inside page was devoted entirely to Mount St. Helens news. People in communities near the mountain were “sleeping with one eye open.” Gov. Dixy Lee Ray embarked on an aerial inspection and declared it “quite a thrill.” A Spokane preacher called it “a revelation of God’s will.”

Next Sunday in this space, we’ll round up the news from the next nerve-wracking week.