Mount Saint Helens, May 1980
The man behind the camera was reportedly Richard āDickā Lasher, a Washington man who headed toward Mount St. Helens on the morning of May 18, 1980, hoping to photograph the restless volcano. According to aĀ 2020 investigation byĀ Willamette Week, Lasher had loaded camping gear into his Pinto and hitched a Yamaha motorcycle to the back so he could explore remote roads around Spirit Lake.
Ironically, oversleeping may have saved his life.
At 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens erupted with catastrophic force in what became the deadliest volcanic eruption in modern U.S. history. Fifty-seven people were killed. Entire forests were flattened in minutes. Rivers changed course, ash darkened skies across the Northwest, and the landscape around the mountain was transformed forever.
According to the reporting by Willamette Week and research conducted by automotive journalist Dan Strohl, Lasher had planned to ride much closer to Spirit Lake that morning, directly into the area that would take the full force of the lateral blast.
Had Lasher arrived there on time, he likely would not have survived
Instead, he was still somewhere along the forest roads of Gifford Pinchot National Forest when the mountain exploded.
Somewhere in that terrifying moment, Lasher pulled over, stepped out of the Pinto, and captured the image that would later become legendary.
And then he got the hell outta Dodge.
I also remember an account that said Lasher escaped on the motorcycle and the Pinto was lost -
