Volcanoes and History
Cascade Range Volcanoes - "Volcanoes and History"

Doctor George Stuckey

Kalispel Tribe, Mount St. Helens' eruption ca.1800
(Written in 1853, published in 1855)

Excerpt from:
"Report of Doctor George Suckley, assistant surgeon United States army, of his trip in a canoe from Fort Owen down the Bitter Root, Clark's fork, and Columbia rivers, to Vancouver, December 19, 1853", IN: I.I. Stevens, 1855, Explorations for a route for the Pacific Railroad, near the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude, from St. Paul to Puget Sound, part of: Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Author: United States. War Dept., published in 1855.

Eruption of Mount St. Helens, ca.1800

   [p.298]     ... A few inches below the surface of the earth can be found the ashes and cineritious deposit of a volcano. The stratum is about one-third of an inch thick. As you proceed in a north-north-easterly direction, it becomes thicker and thicker. Hence we may infer that the crater was in that direction, and probably can now be found. The inhabitants have never seen it. They do not travel from curiousity, and the direction is among mountains from the very door of the mission. In the tribe there are men and women still living who remember the eruption. They say that it came on during the afternoon or night, during which it rained cinders and fire. The Indians supposed that the sun had burnt up, and that there was an end of all things. The next morning, when the sun arose, they were so delighted as to have a great dance and a feast. ...



Digital version of George Stuckley's report was found at the
University of Michigan Library Website, 2008, ?Making of America?.


NOTE: Mount St. Helens' "Layer T"


 

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