When Mt St Helens exploded on May 18, 1980, many logging operationas were destroyed in the blast zone area. Along with that, 3 of Weyerhausers logging camps downstream were wiped out completely. Over the next few weeks I'll post a few pics from those days on the mountain. Some of the logging equipment, some of the camps, and some before and after pics.
Weyerhauser ran many crews and much equipment on the mountain in those days. Yarder 223, a Skagit GT-5 grapple yarder, was double-shifting (it had/has the night logging package) decking on both sides of the road, and had ALOT of old-growth wood decked over 1/2 mile of road, to be loaded out later by a loading crew. On the hill above, the tailblock was hung on a Cat D8H with a 35' lattice tower (built by Weyco in the Camp Baker shop). Look closely at the pics below at the amount of wood along the road, the yarder is tough to see in the 3rd and 4th pics. The 5th pic is the tailcat buried in ash. The winch and lattice tower on the canopy are visible. These machines, along with a Kenworth fire truck, rest there even as I type this today, some 30 years later.
Reference photos for above post: 1. Here's a pic of this same yarder when it was brand-new! 2. A similar Cat D8H Tailhold machine, also with Weyco shop built canopy and lattice tower (in travel position). Photo taken at Weyerhauser Camp 12, 1986. 3. A few of my 1/25 scale Weyerhauser dozer models showing a similar type Cat.
WOW! I was living in Southern Idaho at the time. I've always knew it was a tremendous explosion and I've seen a few pictures, but nothing like the ones your posting. Really shows the devastation and power. Awesome pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post them.
I was working for Weyerhauser in oregon at the time and remember it well. We sent lots of equiptment north to be sacrificed. Alot of my dad's family lived around Castle Rock, Washington and my dad saying that there be no more smoked salmon from Uncle Hank. Bummer what the ash did to the rivers.
That was an unreal day!! I felt the rumble in Nanaimo, called my sister in Clatskani Or. she never heard a thing.:beatsme I was up too the lookouts a few yrs ago. Mother Nature at its best!!! I've been adding a bunch of stuff to Madill, Cypress,Van Island, threads help yourself.(all my originals)if your interested. Any pics of the draglines that I remember along the I-5
No draglines so far. Figure I'll post one side a night or so, scanning is a pain, lol. Weyerhauser yarder #227 was a Madill 009 (4-axle rubber) working on Coldwater Ridge. Loading was a NEW Link-Belt LS5800TL, Weyco shovel # 129. One guyline was anchored to a Cat D8H, Weyco dozer # 517. Also on the side were 2 fire trucks- on KW 6,000 gallon and one Ford 2,500 gallon. All but the shovel are there still today. The tube was blown clean off and the KW blown over the landing. Enjoy the pics boys!
Here are some pics of that Cat D8H and Kenworth fire truck.
that is unreal.
Stay tuned, we're just geting warmed up. There were around 30 sides affected, plus the camps and sort yards. Lots of scanning to do.....
In the 4th pic is that a tower rigged up in the back ground ? If it is! salvage or did it survive the blast. These pics really show the power of that explosion. Thanks for sharing:thumbsup
That is Weyco Yarder 226, a Madill 046 tank mount! It was salvaged, yes, along with Shovel # 167 that was loading there. I have pics of the salvage that day she was drug out- you'll like those. It was rebuilt at Kalama in 1983, the damage was severe. Maybe tomorrow I'll scan those for you. I enjoy the posting but hate the scanning, lol..... Many of the yarders (mostly Madill 009's) were left upright and lived to log again.
OK, you got me scanning again after I was done for the night...... Here is a reference shot of Weyerhaeuser yarder # 226, a Madill 046 slackline on the big tank bottom. Weyco had a bunch of these 046 machines on tank, rubber, and even trailer mountings at the Longview operation through the 1970's and early 80's. The tank mounts were heavy as hell to move. This pic was taken on Coldwater Ridge in 1979 before the eruption, during a setting move.
Here are some different shots of this rig after the blast. The shovel is # 167, a new Link-Belt LS5800TL, and both were eventually salvaged out.
Here are a couple salvage pics of the side. it was 1982 before they could get a road built back in there, and the gear was a real mess by then. Here are some things to notice: The ram is up in the yarder pic, it was being run off the truck pto as the yarder wouldn't run. The guylines were cut and the tower lowered onto the ram by the D9G there. Also, that D9G (Weyco Cat #518) has a cable-operated snorkel-type grapple on it. Pretty awesome to see any grapple on a Cat that big, let alone the cable style- very popular with Weyerhaeuser at Longview, however. Be shure to notice the Ford fire truck being pushed by the dozer as it pulls the Link-Belt. Last, the line truck is a neat old round-fender KW off-roader, and the lowbed is a glass-hood KW C500 with big Clark 90,000 lb planetary rears-- a neat but rare combination.
OK now I am way off topic, but I mentioned the snorkel grapples and figured I had better give more info. A long boom was mounted over the canopy and a block hung or sheave built into it. The main winch was the closing/holding line and a smaller hydraulic winch (mounted above the main winch) was the opening/casting line. Grapple was just a Mar or Young off a grapple yarder. Snorkel boom lengths varied and were built in the Weyco shops. Weyerhaeuser Longview had a huge fleet of these dozers like this from D7 to D9 sized, and a few TD25's. Picture are Cats #502, #523, #546, and #555, all of these machines are D8H's.
Do you happen to know how many people were killed in these camps? Must have been horrific. I remember here in Manitoba how the skies were darkened that summer.
This must have been the prototype for what we see today. Grapple Cats D-5etc... Did you get a chance to check out the TD-25 I posted Van Isl logging #181 Keepm coming great thread. I always wondered happened to the equipment up their. Thanks
Fortunately it blew at 8:30 am on a Sunday, no workers around. 57 people were killed, mostly campers and mountain-watchers. Had it blown on a weekday, thousands would have been killed on the job.
Yarder 232 and Shovel 121 Weyerhaeuser yarder # 232, a Madill 009 was working the Coldwater Canyon area along with Shovel # 121, a Bucyrus-Erie 38B with Young heel-boom. Both were hit hard by the blast and were accessed a couple of years later (1983) and scrapped. Here is that operation in 1980 after the blast.
Madill 009 yarder #232, horrible scans, I apologize.... Some detail is visible.
Hail Contract Logger!! Contract Logger! :notworthy:notworthy:notworthy
Lol, no need for any of that here. I was in the right place at the right time and knew the right folks and have been able to collect lots of these pics over the years. I had a long day, and I cannot stand scanning, so tonight I look and dont add pics if thats OK with you guys. Plus- all my pics are in boxes and old albums and its a real mess all over the floor when I'm looking for pics of a certain thing. My woman comes in from the kitchen, looks at me and the mess all over the living room and gives the same unhappy glare my mom used to give me 30 years ago when i was doing basically the same thing....... She gets pretty impressed let me tell you, lol.:beatsme
Just a suggestion!!! teach her how to scan:drinkup let me know how you make out???
Well, she didnt buy it. Back to scanning for me I guess. On the other side of the ridge, above the South Fork of the Toutle, Weyerhaeuser Shovel 150, operated by Bill Peterson, was loading out right-of-way wood in the timber. Fortunately for Bill, the mountain blew on a Sunday, and eventually they got back in there to the machine and Bill went loading on salvage duty. Shovel #150 was a Washington TL-6 with wooden snorkel, and on a 4-axle carrier. Pic 1: LH page view of area. Pic 2: RH page view of area (shovel is yellow spot, right-hand side, middle). Pic 3: Close-up of Shovel #150 from helicopter.
amazing pics :notworthy please keep'em coming
the photos don't do the size of that timber justice, until you get to the 3rd one and see what he has in his grapples, then you realize just how big that fir is. i have only seen timber laid out like that after the Columbus day storm on the coast, there wasn't as much of it but there was enough. it was by far the scariest blowdown i ever cut in. in places you were 6 and 7 logs deep and there was only one place the start, and it wasn't on top
My uncle Doug Peacocke had a few yarders affected when this happen he has a bunch of photos he came back to New Zealand some time after that, I ended up purchasinq a berger sp23 off him great machine...Know have a grapple yarder a cypress 6280 love this machine tooo...
I remember your Uncle well- and I saw that Berger up the Lewis River at his shop once. He had a bunch of different Bergers he used. Also- his trucking contractor was a fellow named Pat Ferrell, also from your neck of the woods. I wondered how he was doing? He was one hell of a good logger over here!
Here we have a Skagit slackline yarder and a Bucyrus-Erie 38B with Young heel boom. Quite the mess left over- yarder/tower and shovel all in a wad. Different photographers, on different days, but cool pics.
Another shot from a differnt angle.
These first 2 are not good pics. This is a Bucyrus Erie 30B loading shovel working in upper Coldwater Canyon when the mountain blew. It was blown off its lnding and down over the bluff to about 700 feet below and landed on another road. I have hiked in to this machine many times, and the 3rd pic is one I took there in 2008, 28 years later.....
This machine, along with a Cat D8H, a Madill 009, and some KW fire trucks can be seen and touched by hiking the South Coldwater Trail at Mt St Helens. It is a 3-mile hike in to this rig with a gradual elevation gain of about 900 feet I would guess. I would recommend this hike to anyone in the area who loves equipment. There are coyotes and elk herds running through the area regulalrly as well, adding to the enjoyment.
Lousy Pics, but can you spot the dozers? There are Cat D8's in every picture!
More dozers. The first one is a TD25.
Thanks for the pictures. I can see the craigs list now. Clean 1 owner none running machine, you haul, cheap
I did it about five years ago with my daughter, but she got tuckered out before we reached the equipment. Definitely will head there this summer for the 30 year anniversary! She's 12 now, so no problem making it this time
Excellent thanks for sharing,I can sympathise with you on the post above,Just one question how did the logging companies fair out ,was there any compensation or form of safety net for them? This thread is very ponent with the events in Iceland and all our planes grounded as the airspace is closed due to volcanic ash...
30 years ago today..... RIP for those who lost there lives to the Mt.
Deus Tribuo Lemma Pacis
I never realized how bad it was..these pix's really bring it home,makes ya sick to your stomach, what a waste..
Not really, yes a LOT of iron was lost, but it was a calculated risk. The loggers knew that it would go at some point, but tey figured they could move some serious timber before it blew, so they went for it. I would have gone after St. Helens at that time.
Heading up there tomorrow
Been thinking about you and wishing I was there hiking with you. Anxious to see recent pics, and hoping you took water....:drinkup I went up in April but snow was still too deep to see anything even through the spotting scope!
Was a great hike! I found the 009, the D8, and the Ford water truck down at the bottom. Couldn't find the KW water truck or the Bycrus Erie, may not have gone quite far enough to see the loader. I had just barely enough cell service on my Crackberry to log into the Weyco Google Map and take a look at the layout while up there. Took lots of pics will upload them tomorrow night after work, was a beautiful day up there, not too hot. It's going to be pushing 100 down here tomorrow Headed for Castle Lake a few weeks ago and found the trail, but was by myself and didn't feel like risking life and limb all by myself. Tried to look for the GT from the road, but no luck.
The KW is right off the landing below the 009- standing at the yarder looking toward the visitor's center it's off to the right of the tower tube. The 30B is another mile- maybe 2- up the road. Glad you got there! I always liked to make that hike leaving the parking lot about 6:30 am. Back to the car by 10:30 or so, beat the heat and enjoy the lake. Look back through the thread at my pic of the Ford fire truck being pushed by the D9- it's still right there where you were today! Hard to believe.... Again- Glad you got there, and wish I was there! Now you'll be addicted and going back often, like I used to. The Castle Lake hike is a whole different ballgame- worth it- but wow, what a climb! And way to rough to go it alone. Take 4 or 5 tough people, one whiner will ruin the trip! Its really tough going.
:notworthy:notworthy:jawdrop:woohoo:drinkup
Brings back memorys! this site will keep me going for hours! Glad i found it!
I was working a clearcut near Stevens Pass when the mountain blew. We only had a light dusting of ash, but the boss made us change out all the air filters at the end of the week.
those are some a-w-e-s-o-m-e pictures...thanks for posting them....
Still Standing: Weyerhaeuser Yarder 231 (Madill 009 on rubber) and Shovel 105 ( Link-Belt LS98TL with the old-style Young boom) were working above the North Toutle on Coldwater Creek off the 3100 road. Below the ridgeline, the tower stayed upright but was sandblasted by the winds and the grapple wound up on the yarder there. Several other yarders also survived this way. The yarder was salvaged out buth the shovel was worn-out before the blast ahd was scrapped and replaced with a new (hydraulic) machine.........
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was on a commerical airline flight between Los Angles and Seattle about 4 or 6 weeks after it happened. Weather was beautiful that day and the pilot did a circle over the St. Helens crater so we could see everything. What a site only could not see the total devistation away from the mountain itself very good. Mother Nature at her best, or worst which ever you want to call it.
Yarder 233 and Shovel 120-- Weyerhaeuser Yarder #233 (a Madill 009 SP) and Shovel #120 (Link-Belt LS98TL with Young boom) were working in the Schultz Creek area and were inside the blast zone but also below a ridgeline, escaping being completely destroyed. They did get the heat and high-wind treatment, and sustained heavy damage. Also working the same drainage and road system 1/2 mile away was Shovel #104, a Bucyrus-Erie 38B with Young boom and wooden snorkel on top. Weyco used quite a few of these snorkel setups at Longview before the eruption, and alot of BE 30B and 38B shovels too.
A year and a half later, road was rebuilt into the area and Yarder 233 came out under her own power, and Shovel 120 was also made to run and went to town loaded cross-ways behind Kenworth #422. Both were rebuilt and aided in the big blowdown salvage effort. Shovel 120 was later replaced by a hydraulic shovel, and Yarder 233 was parted out at Headquarters Camp in 1994. I believe her bones are at Ramsey in Chehalis today- they were a couple years ago.
I've been fascinated with Mt. St. Helens since I was a kid. I was 9 when she blew, and living in Eugene Oregon. Amazing the power behind the blast. I never realized there was equipment right across the lake from the Coldwater Visitor's Center. I've been up there several times and never knew it was there. Can you see the yarder from the visitor's center with binoculars? Awesome pics! Cheers: Bill
Yes- the yarder, Cat D8, and 2 fire trucks are easily visible from the Coldwater Visitor Center. Once you see them you'll wonder how in the heck you missed them all these years! You can see them with the naked eye even. There's alot of iron left out there. After all, there's alot of equipment they havent found yet- and some right there in the Coldwater (new Cat 235 and Bucyrus-Erie 325HL Log Loader in the lake).
We lost our equipment and 2 men on that day. Ross & Sons Logging. We were logging on Shultz Cr. just below Hanaford Lake. One ridge behind Coldwater. If the blast had happened while we were working, there would have been 9 widows in our family. I've been to the visitor center twice since the blast. Cried both times. Teared up looking at your pics. I knew half the people lost that day, including my newly wed neighbors, John and Christy Killian. My dad found Christy's body a few months later while out searching for her and John with John's dad. My Dad, brother, and I hiked into our equipment 2 days after the blast on an overcast day with the mountain not visible and still rumbling. We had to hike many miles through hot ash. We were hoping to find survivors, but that didn't happen.
It is very understandable why you would get tears, akroadrunner it was quite a loss. Thank God it wasn't a normal work day, for you and so many others. Maybe someone was looking over so many, from high above.
The folks at the Toutle church had been praying that the mountain would not erupt while we were working. My mom pulled out of her driveway that morning, headed to the church. She had felt the earthquake a few moments before. When she looked to her left for traffic, she saw the eruption. Instead of going to the church, she went to the Toutle fire dept. where she worked, and set off the alarm to evacuate Toutle. Later we all watched on TV at my house in Vader, as the wall of mud a debris came down the valley. The were saying it was hundreds of feet high. I asked my dad how far above the river their house was. He looked at me and said "186 feet". Fortunately the debris spread out before getting to Toutle and their home and my brothers was saved. My dad flew into the blast area the next day with the Nat. Guard. Hard to tell where he was at even though he often flew in the past to look at timber sales. Later on, Ralph Killian, the father of John whom I mentioned earlier, landed in a Weyerhauser chopper in a hay field separating our homes. He had flown over our equipment. My dad asked if he had seen anything of our timber fallers, Tom Gadwa and Wally Bowers. Ralph told us that if they were at the job site, there was no chance for survival. My dad then asked about the equipment. Ralph, who was dealing with his own emotions looking for his son and wife Christy who had been trout fishing at a lake near our outfit, looked at my dad and said, It's all gone Keith, all gone". I'll never forget the look on my dad's face.
Thanks Ak, I rememeber the pictures on the television. I knew it was bad, but had no idea how large of an area till I drove around that area, years latter. I can't imagine how hearing, the new of everything is gone, would affect your dad. When I was young, way back when, we had six of our family killed in one automobile accident. My father had to try and identify the bodies, it bothered him the rest of his life. That they didn't get the identifications right.
MAY 16th 1980 "I'm done Logging" qoute from my brother Paul Ross. When we pulled away from the landing that afternoon, Paul took his caulk boots off (which were still in good shape BTW) and he threw them out the window of the crummie I was driving. Next went his tin hat. When questioned why he would toss them away like that, Paul replied, "I don't need them, I'm done logging. I'll never put on another pair of caulks. Sitting at Paul's house in Kelso was his Ford pickup, packed to the gills and full of gas. It was pointed towards Alaska. he had a renter ready to move into his furnished home. Early saturday morning the Ford fired up and eased out onto I-5 and headed north. You know what happened on Sunday at 8:32 am. The phone rang at my house in Vader Sunday afternoon. Paul was already in Canada. He wanted to know if everyone was alright. We were. we still had not learned that 2 of our cutters were working that morning. We did not know anything about the equipment yet. Paul asked Dad if he should turn around and come back. Dad told him to keep going north. I am quite certain that Paul struggled with the decision anyway of whether to continue on to Alaska, or come back to be with the family. The decision he had made in the previous weeks was tough enough. Paul loved working for Ross & Sons, and was very good at everything he did. He just didn't see a rosy future in logging. After many years working the oil patch, Paul moved back to Toutle in 1995. He bought our Dad's old house when Dad moved into his new one on the hill behind the school. If you stop by to visit Paul, you can have a gander at a spectacular 2 man power saw collection. Mercury Distons are his favorite. Up at Dad's you can sit in the evening and watch 30-40 come right up to the house. Paul still is not logging. That's o.k. though. I was there for a visit last September. I took a lawn chair out by the highway and sat and watched the log trucks go by. I recognized many of the names. I waved at them all. Sure was different though, watching that small wood go by. Used to see plenty of 3 log loads and even the trucks that had more than 3 were still in the single digits. Looked like most of the ones I saw in September were dragging 100 or more pieces. (SIGH) I'll see if I can get Paul to post some pics of his big saws when he has some time off.
Some amazing pics and stories in here. I have lived near that mountain my whole life (up till 8 years ago) and I have never been up there. It is on my list though. Wife and I are very avid hikers and I would love to hike in to some of the old operations and see these sites for myself. Is there a map that any one has with some of the sites plotted or anyone have GPS coordinates.
Count on me stopping by one day to say hello, if I am invited at the time. In this day and age, I don't just cruise up someone's driveway unannounced.
The 'Welcome' sign is always out. Bring your camera. There was an article in the Longview Daily about my Dad a while back. May have been the anniversary of the eruption. "Toulte logger recalls his luck" or something like that. Saw it on Google News also. There was also pics and quotes in National Geographic after the eruption.
Thanks, AK. A gyppo logger gave my dad an old McCulloch 2-man saw back in about 1965. he said none of his crew would run it. Came with about a 60" bar and a helper, and you set the bar up horizontally to fall, vertically to buck. I'm thinking it was a fellow named Williamson, down below Aloha. He got hurt in the woods, was crippled, and received a nice settlement. He invested it in a logging side, and his wife ran it for him. From what I recall, they did pretty well. He and his wife were friends of my father, although I never met them.
You mean THIS article? http://tdn.com/news/local/article_c0b4e19e-62e4-11df-a1c6-001cc4c03286.html
That's it. he was talking when they took the pic, but still good! Dad probably knows the guy you got the McCulloch from. We had 2 McCulloch go karts when we lived at the beach. One was the previous years champion from Moon Island race track. We often ran it with 2 engines. Used them on the hard sand between Moclips and Pacific Beach. Always drew a crowd, With 2 engines, we could coax 70-80 mph out of them. Since this is the St Helens thread, and not the chainsaw thread, I'll give you some Spirit Lake Hwy stuff. I always drove crummy. Dad put a 428 Cobra Jet in our crew cab. Had the Nospin rear and 12:00 16.5 rubber. Mash on it, and I could lay some serious rubber, even with guy line extension, saws, and tools in the back. One morning I show up at Dad's and Dan is already behind the wheel and revving that 428. Must have had extra coffee or got some morning delight. Anayway, we were usually the first ones up the highway past Camp Baker. Had to start early so our truckers could have a chance at 3 loads each. A little dew on the road. Still dark. Dan pushes the Ford hard up the highway. Around a right turn about 80 mph, and WHOA a herd of elk, bedded down in and along the road. Dan went for the brakes and elk went everywhere. Dan had that crewcab going everywhere but straight. Elk crossed both ways in front of us and even ran the opposite direction from us. Dan kept it on the road, BARELY. and missed all the elk, again BARELY. He never took the wheel out of my hands again. Another time we just got past Baker and found a Suburban off the road and into a huge fir. The steam was still coming up from the smashed front end. There were some seriously injured loggers in it. Dan bailed to give aid, and I put our truck into reverse. I know I got 50 plus out of it backing up. As I got to the logging road crossing the highway past Baker, I cranked the wheel, hit the brakes and did a reverse bat turn. Hauled butt to the main entrance into camp, and tried to find someone to help. the only place I could find anyone was in the mechanic shop. I informed them we needed the ambulance, and the chopper if it was available. Went back to help the injured until more help arrived. Found out later, the driver had fallen asleep.
If you ever get the chance to ask your Dad about the Williamsons, please, ask him if he remembers Al LeGault. Like your Dad, Mr. LegGault was one class act. He was from up around Sequim. had two sons, Acey and Jay, about our age. He was one rugged man, and he had a heart of gold. God bless him.
I figured CL would have some pics of our equipment, although he mis-identified our tower as a Skagit. The yarder is Skagit, but the tower is Tillman. I grabbed them and will repost. Hope CL doesn't mind. There are great pics of our new TD 20 in my collection that will need to be scanned, but shows the side towards the mountain as nothing but sandblasted metal. The opposing side is nice and yellow still showing Ross & Sons in black. I plan to buy a scanner soon. Gave me a gut punch seeing these pics.
Wow the mount st helens pictures are amazing! It looks more like logging on the moon! What is the area like now? Is still covered in ash or has it recovered by now? Amazing!!
In the Weyerhaeuser lands surround the mountain they replanted with a couple of year so the trees are about 30 years old now and it looks pretty good. In the areas immediately around the mt that are part of the federal national monument I believe they decided to do the natural thing and let it be naturally replanted. Most of it looks pretty rough still. It's a great place to visit though. I feel privileged to have Mt St Helen's in my back yard and get to hike and explore it a lot! This is always fun to look at http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
If you go to the Visitor Center you will notice most people looking at the mountain. There is quite a view the other direction. You can look and see how the eruption scoured the landscape. Also you will be looking right into a saddle. There was a pickup there with 3 dead people in it. A canopy still on the back. Just behind that saddle was our equipment wadded up in a ball. Hard to understand, but the blast followed the landscape and the worst of it went over the pickup without blowing it off the ridge. At our side, the cutters pickup was blown 1/2 mile from where it was parked. You can see our Link Belt and wadded up tower at the top of this page.
My dad also lost two sides up there at either fawn lake or coldwater ridge, I cannot remember. One Tillman and a Skookum.
We had a Tillman tower with Skagit drums, a Link Belt heel boom loader, and a R.O.W side with 2 cats and a Manitowoc 2300. All gone. My neighbors, just married, John and Christie (Wilcox) Killian were at Fawn lake on their belated honeymoon. John was never found, but my Dad found part of Christie many month later. We were just behind Coldwater Ridge. Pretty sure your equipment couldn't have been far from ours. We were just below Hanaford Lake. Some called it Elk Lake. When I saw the pics posted by CL, it was like a punch in the guts, even though I saw the stuff first hand only a couple days after the blast. Still a gut check when it hits you unexpected. My first trip into the visitor center so many years later, I stopped at the list of 58 names and stood there and bawled like a baby. I knew most of those people, but never could have predicted my reaction after all those years.
Ya, I believe the landing cat and shovel from one side were never found and The other landing push cat was like half a mile away if I remember the stories correct. I was just 5 when it blew but remember it like the world was ending. We lived in morton and it got so dark we thought we were all goners. My grandparents used to go sit with Harry and drink 'shine then drive back across the woods to morton. Those were the days. It still makes me well up as the summer before we had the sides at mosquito meadows and built a campsite that we lived in for 5 months. It was leveled by the blast and later rebuilt as a real FS campground after the cleanup efforts were underway.
When Weyerhaeuser was pushing back in there on the 'Blowdown Salvage" they were also cutting up and hauling out the leftover machinery as they came to it. It was 82' or so by the time they got clear back to where that Tillman side was at, and most everything there got hauled out. Before the new highway was built we used to go up the 2500, over the 2800 up past the lakes, then drop back down the old (steep) 3500 into where the Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center sits today. There is a section of that Tillman tower tube still laying there today, roughly 20' long and buckled/collapsed at one end. I have sat on it eating my lunch many times watching elk graze close by. I do have a picture showing this rusting Tillman tube section taken around 88' but hadn't thought of scanning it until tonight. Not sure if its something you really want to see, roadrunner...... There's alot of iron up there, including several complete pieces, as most of you know by now. I've run across everything imaginable including a big Young 68" grapple laying far from any road. Blocks, rigging, 55-gallong drums, and loose Cat D8 tracks scattered across the moonscape where they were tossed, all while trailing elk and tracking couger and coyotes up there in the blast zone over the years.
The trail you described is exactly where we were logging. I left in 82 but made a few trips up there after the equipment was salvaged. I don't know if the leftover Tillman stuff could be my Dad's. I do know that some of the things I saw up there would be hard to explain to someone who hadn't seen it. My parents honeymooned at Trumans in 1946. I honeymooned there in April 1973. The Spirit lake Lodge down the highway still had the old gas pump with the glass bulb on top that you pumped the gas into and then drained into your tank. We rented boats from Truman and caught many trout in Spirit Lake. My Dad and Uncles shot some of the first elk to migrate into the area before WWII. My Grandpa fell timber up the Coweeman with a misery whip prior to that. Many family stories about hunting and logging there. I remember watching Truman do an interview at the Toutle High School just before the blast. he really talked it up, but I always thought he would have got out of there if he thought it would get bad. He seemed to thrive on the attention. Most likely thought he would have more warning, just like we did.
Mike and Arnie Starks of Starks Logging in Puyallip did the salvage logging where our equipment was lost. Mike and Arnie are my Dad's cousins. My brother, Dan spent a lot of hours up there looking for signs of our cutters, Tom Gadwa and Wally Bowers. We knew they had made it there before the blast. I found a piece of chrome from their pick up the day we hiked the 8 mile round trip to look for them 2 days after the blast. In August that year, I found parts from their Pickup. Blown 1/2 mile across the landscape. Later found a handfull of bones and hair, but the Sherriff dept. claimed it was from an animal. Too much trouble I suspect, for them to put someone to rest. Dan found a tree down that had been undercut, but no back cut. Mike and Arnie refused to log the area around it. Left it as a personal rememberance to Tom and Wally. Our own little Mt St Helens monument.
I remember the Starks. I have pics someplace I took on one of thier jobs out near Carbonado- they had a Skagit tower with a Madill 009 hoist on it up there. That tower section is from your dad's Tillman. No doubt in my mind, it's laying right there in that spot. Here's a pic I took there in 1989 right on your landing, the under-construction Maratta Creek highway bridge can be seen in the background looking West toward Elk Mountain. The other pic is a 1989 also showing construction of the Cow Creek bridge I believe. The 'new highway' didnt open beyond Alder Creek crossing until 1991 I believe....
Take a look at the old KW fire truck toward the bottom of Page 21 of the McMillan-Bloedel thread. I swear, this looks like the same old ex-Weyco fire truck that was parked out in fromt of a small building not too far from Mt. St. Helens when I was out there in 1995. Can anyone shed some light?
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 1 Last July I went up above Coldwater Lake to check out the yarder, cat, and fire truck that was left up their by Weyco after the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens. Guess I never got around to posting the pictures. So here we go.
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 2 More of the same
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 3 Even more pics
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 4 and some more
in picture 3 you can see a firetruck that got blasted off the landing and over the hill, its about in the center of the picture.
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 5 Part 5
Madill 009 #227 and D8 #517 at Coldwater Ridge part 6 And one final picture of a notched stump below the landing
Some really good pictures thanks for taking time to share them. The power from that blast is just unimaginable.
That was some really cool pictures! I add them to the Madill collection under 009/Weyco 227! Looks like you found lot of other stuff in Oregon too!
Thanks was a great hike up to see them, been wanting to get up there for years. Then it took me a year to get them posted. I have higher resolution pictures Torkel, we just need to free up some room on the Dropbox. I have had a great trip and got to spot a few yarders as well. Caught a TBird swing yarder on a landing from a distance today while hiking, too far away to determine model though.
I don't think that tube section would be from our tower unless it got moved. We were logging just below Hanaford Lake on Schultz Creek. We could look right at the water fall coming out of the lake, and you can see that in the pics of our tower wadded up. We were in the draw and that tower section looks to be on a ridge. Our equipment was some of the first to be salvaged in that area. The road was pushed in that summer. Dad's insurance company sent someone in and salvaged the stuff while he was in Alaska. He was beyond pissed. They got the old TD24 fired up and used it to drag stuff onto trucks. The brand new TD20 got rebuilt. Everything else scrapped. The fire truck is still somewhere down Schultz Creek I believe. The cutters Chevy crew cab was scattered across the landscape.
This is a very moving thread. Thank you all for the pics and personal stories. A little late but my thoughts and prayers to you folks who lost family and friends. I was 14 when the eruption happened and remember having ash settle here.
Took a drive up the 504 to have a look around the mountian for the first time. Had my old dad with me and didn't get the chance to go exploring off the highway to far, but still had a great time. What an amazing area. Can't wait to go back up and do some more exploring later on.
After work today I went for a drive up the South Fork. Finally found the road I was looking for after the first 6 pack was gone! So, please allow me to ask, in this picture of Castle Lake, where is the GT5? Its a long drive from Castle Rock up here, but well worth it! Just bring more 'soda' than I did. Lots to see, and plenty of elk to see. Heading back up there in the morning to have a un-rushed self guided tour.
Opps, forgot to insert picture. DUH!
Nice picture! I think it's on the bottom left side, I couldn't spot it either when I was up there last summer either. I think it must be too grown up to see it from the road now. Looks like a rough hike down there and a killer getting back up.
Went back up there today. Even through the bino's I couldn't spot the GT-5. There are some big ol' logs floating in that pond! Thought I could see whats left of the 009 over on Coldwater Ridge. I'm with you Jeremy. I'm not much on hiking on ground that is almost as flat as the inside of a well! The uphill ain't to bad, its the downhill that destorys whats left of the cartlilage thats left in my knees.
No, you're right. That would be too far below the lake. I wonder what that tube came off of then? Lots of gear in there, I guess maybe it could even have come off a scrap truck bombing down the gravel there. There are pieces of scattered iron all over that country.
That GT-5 is in the box canyon right at the head of the lake. I hiked in there last with a group in 1994 and things were growing up good even then. We always parked up high on the 3000 road and went down into the abyss. What a miserable hike that is. There's alot of good stuff in there, including an old blown apart Euclid C-6 on the way down. The Cat D8 and Kenworth fire truck are up the hill a bit from the yarder. The shovel and another yarder (still upright and rigged) are underwater now. That whole canyon was felled and bucked prior to the eruption and all those logs are still laying there. The timber in that canyon was BIG- still is, just laying down now. And the log decks line both sides of that road high and long on both sides. Big, old-growth fir and cedar mostly. Lots of one-log loads came off that hill in the years prior to the eruption. Here are some shots from that 1994 trip. The fell-and-bucked timber on the hillsides is big.
In your picture here that GT-5 is at the right, out of the pic- way up at the headwaters of the lake in the canyon. Steepest, worst section going down, but the machinery is on a flat bench above the lake just a little. ALSO- There is the possibility that the lake level has risen enough that it too is now underwater. There's an inexpensive helicopter tour outfit over at Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center. I think before I made that hike again, I'd just hire a fly-over of the whole canyon at low-altitude and survey everything that way. It would take 10 minutes, tops. Probably cost 150 bucks but that sure beats the #@#$ out of that hike! P.S.- they cannot and will not land in the 'National Volcanic Monument'. I've tried that already and no one will do it.......ugh.
I suppose they could have lost some iron on the way out. Like I said before, the insurance company rushed a salvage job while my Dad was in Alaska. He was way beyond pissed to find the stuff already gone without his knowledge when he returned. I really appreciate all the pics and info you have posted in this thread. Thanks, CL
I am not quite sure, but I think the guy with his back towards the camera in left of the photo is my aunts first husband Dave Gardin. He worked for Weyco at the time of the eruption. I am not sure where exactly his last setting was at but I want to say it was on Coldwater Ridge and I pretty sure this was his tower. They finished setting up the tower and everything on Friday May 16th 1980 and were ready for logging on Monday morning. Well, we all know that they didnt log come Monday morning.
Got some salvage pictures here.
All that ash must of killed your saw chain in seconds . I see you cleaned it off , but still must be hard on the chain
That's not me in the pictures,but from what I hear ash was a real problem while bucking and sawing and another problem was that it was everywhere and was constantly raising while the turns of logs where being hauled to the lading.That's what I hear don't really know I wasn't there.Here's another picture of the ash damaged trees.The ash burned the bark right of.
Nice pics, is that a Washington 208?
I would say so,I'm not 100% sure the image is old and a little blurry.
This is a really amazing read. Thank you for taking the time to share the photos and story with us.
19 Mile Camp Destroyed
Contractors were brought in to dig ditches to drain the water from the debris flow so that salvage of the railroad cars, tracks and ties could take place. The first people into these camps had to use pieces of plywood to get out to the equipment that could be started and operated. Tractors could crawl up out of the shallower flow and start clearing the mud. This was a log storage area also so they could use logs as this excavator is doing to support themselves as they progressed. Otherwise they would sink in what was essentially debris-filled quicksand. Once drainage was established the debris and mud being volcanic and angularly sandy in nature set up rather quickly so it could be moved away from the equipment and log piles to begin the actual salvage efforts. A completed drainage ditch to let the water drain out of the debris mixture
You can keep those pics commin all day!
Most definitely, and thanks for sharing really appreciated..................
agreed! this is history pure and simple. And not that BS history they put in text books either.
Thats the really only nice poclain ive ever seen
What an excellent thread!
They even wrote a song about the eruption [video=youtube;zp5MO77bFA4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp5MO77bFA4&feature=related[/video] I didn't make the video,hope the owner doesn't mind.
I just read the entire thread again, WOW, what a day it must have been for those in the area!! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread!! Steve
Yeah, I read this thread a while ago and it's fascinating. You just don't see history like this any old where. I just can't get over how lucky they were that it didn't blow during the week.
It's sad that the company just lift there stuff there instead of trying to reuse it .
I've always been fascinated with St. Helens and went there in approximately 1986 and flew over it once as well. I had no idea how much equipment was there and still is. It's on my bucket list to go there once more to see the difference, if I can remember it enough. Thanks for posting all the photos and all the comments, I devoured it all!
Haven't checked in for a while. Looked at all the pics again, but didn't read most of the comments. Tears flowed again. Read some of my own comments, and thought I would say here that my brother Paul who I mentioned here, is no longer with us. Another old growth logger and man among men has gone to be with his Lord. Almost exactly 2 years ago today. I miss him greatly, and think of him every day. They hardly make men like him anymore.
Wow this was an incredible read! So sad about the lives lost and the equipment too. I bet nowadays salvage would be almost impossible as they would close everything down to preserve the environment.
I just re-read this thread. Thanks to all who posted pictures & info...very interesting.
quite a read . i was in tacoma wa.when all this was about to go. i left there just 3 days before st. helens went up. best pics. I have seen . thanks to all who posted
I have a box of slides of the Windy Ridge area of the blast zone in late 80 or early 81. We moved a hand from Sedro out of there. He went in after the Governor opened the red zone to forestry salvage. It was and remains one of the saddest jobs I have ever done. We met the logger and followed his crummy in to what was I believed, what a nuclear strike aftermath looked like. We crossed bridges that were shattered but standing and yet deemed useable at the time. We ended up either at Windy Ridge or a little east. He had been logging with an old Skagit SJ5 on rubber and a Prentice loader on a skid steer carriage and a skidder. When we reached the landing. We were looking into the muzzle of the largest implement of destruction, I have ever seen. Spirit Lake was a steaming morass of floating logs. With the trucks shutdown the quiet was deafening. There was not a sound, no insects no nothing... save for the mountain that was cracking and spitting Volkswagon sized rocks as it worked on it's dome building. The ground was like walking on concrete, you barely left a boot print in it. The logger whose name I have forgotten was surrendering his iron to the finance company. With so much wood down I had to ask, what led to this? He reached down and picked what was left of a saw blade off the ground. It was just a pile of segments as the rivet heads had been ground off by the ash. The ash and blast which he said had blown ash into the wood fibre of the trees made them extremely difficult to harvest. He was one of best guy's I ever made a move for. He moved the old Skagit out to the truck. I joined him as I was going to have to unload it and he showed me what I needed to know. We couldn't get the boom/ tower down. The winch was not going to work. The loader and the skidder went on with out issue. Several hours later a guy coming by in a Weyco service truck took pity on all of us and mickey moused it to lower it. Might still be up there if it hadn't been for him. I apologized to the logger as we were leaving with his iron, he shook hands with me and said not to worry about it. It was just as well and was always a next time... I have these images stored still on Kodachrome slides. They are mostly scenery shots as I was so amazed by what I was seeing. By the time we got the Skagit down and road ready I had determined that I hated the thing and I don't think I have an image of it. I will take the slides in and get them converted. It will probably take a couple weeks. I will post them here.
wow. what an experience. The devastation shown in this thread is beyond imagination.
I look forward to that
Thank you for your story Deuce, those of us who lived thru it and lost loved ones/equipment in it know exactly what you described.
I lived in Ellensburg at the time and that morning was the strangest. Suddenly there was no dogs barking, no birds chirping-no nothing dead quiet. Then to the southwest you could see this black curtain, literally a curtain, a wall of ash headed east-northeast. When it finally reached town it just went black, street lights came on and stayed that way for hours. I-90 became a four lane ghost town with abandoned cars and trucks and we only ended up with two inches of ash, the Columbia Basin was far worse. I had a old oil bath air cleaner that I converted to use on my car and siliconed the distributor cap to seal it. I had to clean the ash out of the oil bath everyday it would be an inch deep in the bottom. The stores sold out of food and beer right quick. Only local casualty was a crop duster named Vern Mitchell he was spraying fields near Cle Elum and was trying to out fly it coming back to town and flew into the main Bonneville power lines in the canyon crossing the river at Bristol Flats.
Dad has a friend who is a farmer out by Hillsboro, Or and was out thrashing some crop with the combine after it happened. The crop was still salvageable but of course the dust cloud around the combine was immense. I believe Dad and he had a full time job keeping the combine running with all the dust but in the end it was pretty manageable.
We lived in Morton at the time & dad had two of the sides at Coldwater. He had a cast from hip to ankle on after tearing his knee up & still working on it. We were visiting my grandparents (We lived next door) and I remember everything getting very dark and the deepest rumbling you ever felt/heard. My grandpa said that I'd better open my birthday present early (1/18 scale NAPA Kenworth & Trailer) since we didn't know what the outcome would be. It started raining down ash & pumice rock the size of golf balls. My mom was hollering at him to get her trans am under cover so the paint didn't get ruined. Lol, My dad also owned a body shop at the time (mainly for equipment, crummys & pickups) and donned his respirator to head into town. He gathered all the beer, meat, potatoes and coffee he could then got all the air, fuel & oil filters he could. Snowplows were running wide open to clear the ash and it was just genuine chaos. It took close to 6 months to get into the gear and it was just as TS said, as close to a nuclear warzone as you could get. Both sides had just flat out disappeared. The only gear ever recovered from there was Shorty Long's saw & the lower of a Linkbelt LS-108. I am a firm believer that we would have still been logging old growth into the 2000s if not for that eruption and all the eyes from around the world it brought down upon us. Just barely 10 years after that devastated eastern Lewis & Skamania counties the "Owl" debacle (such a scapegoat it was) came thru and shut us down for good. It still hurts to this day to see emptiness where Mt. Adams Veneer, Cowlitz Stud and Max West mills once stood. To see the abandoned shops of Ladimer, Filla, Moe and others along with the emptiness where Cascade Loggers Supply once occupied and the general poverty & sadness of an area once so strong, proud & respected. With this I will end my saddening memory... Government regulation killed our community, do not let it kill yours.
So many casualties and indirect losses. The owl may have been worse as far as far reaching went. It seemed to be a never ending parade of gear coming out of the woods for auction and a very uncertain future from NorCal to Alaska to Montana for forestry hands. Still don't really why we export our best logs to Japan. I was watching a log ship in Astoria a few years ago... at some point I just shook my head and left. We damn sure, know how to produce lumber in this country.
While I know there is still good lumber around we sure aren't seeing it here. I got 110 9' studs and had to return 24 because they were split so bad, that I thought they would fall apart. Most have one edge with bark or where the bark has come off, already. The Doug Fir is quite a bit better quality, in the 2 X 10 and 12
I have noticed that to at some of the box stores. Coming from Washington and being raised just south of 3 Weyco mills and having family that worked out of Headquarters on Weyco logging trains. I was blessed living at home to be able to get premium lumber anytime. Out here... not so much.
If we get a chance to export logs we do it! the margins are so tough you have to... there have been quite a few times when there is a glut of top quality timber and they won't take any more for export then those logs stay domestic and you will see better lumber at the stores shortly after it happens.
I have a bunch of pics taken after it blew, I'll try to scan in a few now and then. Taken August 94 Windy ridge August 94
Another from further up Windy ridge looking at the lake August 94
Found the slides! Hopefully we can drop them off today.
Cool!!! MD, There should be lots of pics around here somewhere from shortly after it lost it's top... I got some great 35mm shots going around and inside the dome from a few hundred feet over it, we got video here too... somewhere.
Looking forward to seeing those!. My slides are dated August of 82 not 81. I had not noticed that my foggy mind was skewing dates!. It would be interesting to see some pics of Segale working their way up the river and Weyco salvage operations. Seems like it was yesterday...almost 40 years ago.