Facts
Mount St. Helens is 45 miles (72 km) west of Mount Adams, in the western part of the
Cascade Range. These "sister and brother" volcanic mountains are approximately
50 miles (80 km) from Mount Rainier, the highest of Cascade volcanoes.
Mount Hood, the nearest major volcanic peak in Oregon, is 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Mount St. Helens.
Mount St. Helens is geologically young compared to the other major Cascade volcanoes. It formed only within the past 40,000 years, and the pre-1980 summit cone began rising about 2,200 years ago. The volcano is considered the most active in the Cascades within the Holocene epoch (the last 10,000 or so years).
Prior to the 1980 eruption, Mount St. Helens was the fifth-highest peak in Washington.
It stood out prominently from surrounding hills because of the symmetry and extensive snow and ice cover of the pre-1980 summit cone, earning it the nickname "Fuji-san of America" ("Mount Fuji of America"). The peak rose more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above its base, where the lower flanks merge with adjacent ridges.
The mountain is 6 miles (9.7 km) across at its base, which is at an altitude of 4,400 feet (1,300 m) on the northeastern side and 4,000 feet (1,200 m) elsewhere.
At the pre-eruption tree line, the width of the cone was 4 miles (6.4 km).Aerial view
Streams that originate on the volcano enter three main river systems: the Toutle River on the north and northwest, the Kalama River on the west, and the Lewis River on the south and east.
The streams are fed by abundant rain and snow.
The average annual rainfall is 140 inches (3,600 mm), and the snow pack on the mountain's upper slopes can reach 16 feet (4.9 m). The Lewis River is impounded by three dams for hydroelectric power generation. The southern and eastern sides of the volcano drain into an upstream impoundment, the Swift Reservoir, which is directly south of the volcano's peak.
Although Mount St. Helens is in Skamania County, Washington, the best access routes to the
mountain run through Cowlitz County to the west. State Route 504, locally known as the
Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, connects with the heavily traveled Interstate 5 at Exit 49, 34 miles (55 km) to the west of the mountain. That major north–south highway skirts the low-lying cities of Castle Rock, Longview and Kelso along the Cowlitz River, and passes through the Vancouver, Washington–Portland, Oregon metropolitan area less than 50 miles (80 km) to the southwest. The community nearest the volcano is Cougar, Washington, in the Lewis River valley 11 miles (18 km) south-southwest of the peak. Gifford Pinchot National Forest surrounds Mount St. Helens.
Legends
American Indian lore contains numerous legends to explain the eruptions of Mount St. Helens and other Cascade volcanoes.The most famous of these is the Bridge of the Gods legend told by the Klickitats.
In their tale, the chief of all the gods, Tyhee Saghalie
and his two sons, Pahto (also called Klickitat) and Wy'east, traveled down the Columbia River from the Far North in search for a suitable area to settle.
They came upon an area that is now called The Dalles and thought they had never seen a land so beautiful. The sons quarreled over the land, so to solve the dispute their father shot two arrows from his mighty bow — one to the north and the other to the south. Pahto followed the arrow to the north and settled there while Wy'east did the same for the arrow to the south. Saghalie then built Tanmahawis, the Bridge of the Gods, so his family could meet periodically.
When the two sons of the Saghalie fell in love with a beautiful maiden named Loowit
she could not choose between them. The two young chiefs fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. The area was devastated and the earth shook so violently that the huge bridge fell into the river creating the cascades of the Columbia River Gorge.
For punishment, Saghalie struck down each of the lovers and transformed them into
great mountains where they fell. Wy'east, with his head lifted in pride, became the volcano known today as Mount Hood. Pahto, with his head bent toward his fallen love, was turned into Mount Adams. The fair Loowit became Mount St. Helens, known to the Klickitats as Louwala-Clough which means "smoking or fire mountain" in their language.
Importance to Native Americans
Traces of ancient campsites have been found in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest
which surrounds the monument. Dating of these sites reveals that people have lived in this area for at least 6,500 years. Throughout human history, Mount St. Helens eruptions have had a dramatic effect on the lives of local inhabitants.
Work by archaeologists has shown that a massive eruption 3,500 years ago buried native settlements with a thick layer of pumice. As a result, people abandoned the area for nearly 2,000 years. Later, members of the Cowlitz, Taidnapam, Klickitat, Upper Chinook, and Yakama tribes moved seasonally over the land, harvesting huckleberries and hunting salmon, elk, and deer.
