Ag Community Marks Mt. St. Helen’s Anniversary

Thursday marks 37 years since Mt. St Helen’s blew its top, and a large portion of its side.  Gladie Nagamitsu worked at the WSU Dryland Research Station in Lind, and she says she remembers that 1980 morning very well.

“I mean, it was just dark, I mean, you could see nothing, it was dark, it was right at noon, on Sunday, noon.”

Lind received some of the largest accumulations of ash, roughly 6” of the stuff fell after the eruption.  Nagamitsu told the Washington Ag Network while the ash made it challenging to drive, and run typical errands, the ag community, at least the wheat farmers did not suffer much.

“I mean the ground was just covered with this grayish colored ash, so the farmers said what in the world, how are we going to harvest and everything, well it rained and it got a little bit better pretty soon, it rained again, and it was a little bit better, and they had one of the best crops that they ever had.”

Nagamitsu said they had so much ash in Lind that the National Guard was called in to help clear out streets as well as the city pool.

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com