On May 18, 1980, the world’s eyes were fixed on the Pacific Northwest.
Mount St. Helens had come alive in what would quickly become the most
destructive volcanic eruption in US history.
57 lives were lost in the disaster, and hundreds of square miles were destroyed beyond recognition.
What most people don’t know is that the mountain’s peak was actually the property
of the Burlington Northern Railroad.
All they could do was sit back and watch as this unique piece of real estate blew itself apart.
To understand how they ended up in this situation, we have to go back over a hundred years.
In the mid-19th Century, the United States government was eager to bring people from
the east to settle their new territories in the west.
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a major milestone in this westward migration,
but more transcontinental routes would be built in the coming years.
One of these was a northern route between the Midwest and Seattle.
Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1864 to build it.
But rather than funding it directly, they awarded the company with 40 million acres
of land across the west.
These land plots would be sold off to help fund the construction of the railroad.
The route was completed in 1883.
But by the early 20th Century, Northern Pacific still owned many of their land plots throughout
Washington State.
As fate would have it, one of these just happened to cover the peak of Mount St. Helens.
The company owned thousands more acres in the surrounding area as well.
In 1928, they leased 50 acres of land along Spirit Lake to a local man named Harry R. Truman.
Truman opened the Mount St. Helens Lodge, which he would manage for over 50 years.
At the time, Mount St. Helens didn’t draw as many tourists as its larger neighbors,
Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood.
But this didn’t stop Northern Pacific from including it in some of their advertising.
They used the beauty of the Pacific Northwest to entice tourism and sell passenger tickets.
While the surrounding area was prime real estate for the timber industry, the peak itself
didn’t have much commercial value.
Northern Pacific simply left the land open for public access to the mountain.
In 1970, the company was one of four railroads that merged to form Burlington Northern.
Naturally, this new railroad inherited all of Northern Pacific’s land holdings as well.
By the late 70s, Burlington Northern considered building two geothermal
energy sites at the base of the mountain.
They tried to partner with Portland General Electric on the project, but PGE wasn’t interested.
As their spokesman said, “Their major holding was on top of the mountain, and that’s not
really a good spot to be building a power plant.”
They didn’t know it at the time, but the mountain would soon prove the truth of that statement.
In the months leading up to the eruption, Harry Truman, now 83 years old,
became something of a local celebrity.
The feisty old man famously refused to leave his home, vowing to stay
on the mountain until the bitter end.
"If I left, it'd kill me. If I left this place and lost my home I'd die in a week."
"I couldn't live. I couldn't stand it. So, I'm like that old captain, and by God I'm going down with the ship."
Tragically, the eruption caused a landslide and pyroclastic flow of Biblical proportions.
Truman and the St. Helens Lodge were wiped out in an instant.
Of course, Burlington Northern was still the owner of the property, which was now buried
under 150 feet of debris.
They were also the new owner of a massive crater where the mountain’s peak used to be.
In the process of the eruption, the land had lost more than 1,300 feet in elevation.
The US Forest Service and many other groups scrambled to figure out what to do with the
surrounding landscape.
Environmentalists argued that the land had already been damaged by deforestation for
years, so this was the perfect time to protect the area from any further destruction,
at least by humans.
Numerous options were considered, and some people pushed for the area to be developed
into a National Park or a National Monument.
On the second anniversary of the eruption, Burlington Northern announced that it would
donate 690 acres of land to the US Forest Service.
This included the 650 acres on the mountain’s peak, as well as the 50-acre land plot formerly
leased to Harry Truman.
Their letter to President Ronald Reagan said: “It is our hope that this donation will
encourage the careful management of the Mount St. Helens area for the contemplation and
enjoyment of future generations."
A few months later, on August 26, 1982, a hundred and ten thousand acres were officially
preserved as a National Volcanic Monument.
This was a major victory for preserving not only Mount St. Helens itself, but its surrounding
forestry and wildlife as well.
It promised to be a burgeoning hotspot for geological research and tourism for generations to come.
Burlington Northern undoubtedly played a role in helping the park become a reality.
In addition to their donations, they provided thousands more acres to the preserve through
other land trades.
Of course, the company was probably just as happy to get rid of the most infamous piece
of real estate in the country.
Their VP of land management perhaps summed it up best when he said,
“How the hell do you manage an erupting volcano?”