Olson - Eruption : the untold story of Mount St. Helens

I TALKED WITH HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE ABOUT THE ERUPTION OF Mount St. Helens while writing this book. Id especially like to thank Jim Adams, Joe Alper, Dave Anderson, Ivan Bachman, Elna Baine, LeRoy Baine, Al Bates, Don Bonker, Jim Byrne, Christine Colasurdo, Brad Cook, Corrin Crawford, Todd Cullings, George Draffan, Carolyn Driedger, Gregg Easterbrook, Roland Emetaz, David Folweiler, Dick Ford, Ron Franklin, Peter Frenzen, Wendy Friedland, Jessica Friedman, Donna Gerardi Riordon, Liz Hicker, Dave Holland, Sally James, John Hudson, Anita Keeney, John Kendall, Ellie Lathrop, Rick LaValla, Jim LeMonds, Jean Macfarlane, Ross Macfarlane, Ryan Malarkey, Steve Malone, John Martin, Rick McClure, Noel McRae, Robert Melbo, Joe Melton, Charlene Merzoian, Dave Merzoian, Mary Meyer, Richard Meyer, Tom Mulder, Paul Nordstrand, Linda Noson, Dave Olson, Diane Olson, Frank Olson, Ian Olson, Lisa Olson, Lynette Olson, Rick Olson, Roberta ONeill, Ed Osmond, Dan Para, Nancy Parkes, Charlie Raines, Sue Richman, Michael Riordan, Lisa Romano, Keith Ronnholm, Bill Ruckelshaus, Eric Rutkow, Dexter Salsman, Susan Saul, Grace Schmidt, Roger Sedjo, Joni Sensel, Adam Shapiro, Mitch Sheldon, Arlen Sheldrake, Kevin Snider, Heather Tallis, Susan Tanabe, Amy Tanska, Tod Thayer, Mike Town, Dale Vanlaanen, Charley Vermilyea, Umberto Vizcaino, Barry Voight, Richard Waitt, Luke Wakefield, Liz Westby, David Williams, Andy Wilson, Melissa Young, and Ray Yurkewycz. Im particularly grateful to the friends, relatives, and coworkers of John and Christy Killian who shared their stories of the Killians with me.

The thousands of pages of court documents kept on microfilm at the King County Courthouse were an invaluable source of information in writing this book. They put to rest rumors that have circulated in Washington State ever since the mountain exploded. I greatly appreciate the countys work in preserving those records and making them available to me.

Librarians and archivists are some of the most helpful, well-informed, and underappreciated people on earth, and I benefited greatly from their assistance. Thanks to Glenda Pearson, Chris Blomquist, Blynne Olivieri, and Betsy Wilson at the University of Washington Library; Lupita Lopez at the Washington State Archives; Megan Moholt at the Weyerhaeuser Archives; Ken House at the Seattle National Archives; Donna Hill at the Augustana College Library; Emily Tobin at the Rock Island Public Library; Marie Marquardt at the Alma Public Library; Hamp Smith and Sarah Quimby at the Minnesota Historical Society Library; Chris Skaugset and Karen Straube at the Longview Public Library; Mario Milosevic and Kelley Davis at the Stevenson Community Library; Vicki Selander at the Castle Rock Library; Susan Tissot at the Clark County Historical Museum; and Janice Goldblum at the National Academy of Sciences.

I had three superb research assistants while writing this book: Sarah Olson, Eric Olson, and Amelia Apfel. Working with my son and daughter on this book was a special pleasure for me.

Matt Stevenson at CoreGIS drew the wonderful maps in this book, and Charlie Raines helped me get the maps and other geographical details straight. Thanks to Jack Shafer for sending me the link to the Mount St. Helens volcanocam when he lived in this Washington and I lived in the other one.

Id like to express my particular gratitude to the people who read part or all of the book in manuscript and helped me revise it: Christine Colasurdo, Jim LeMonds, Steve Malone, Barry Voight, and the members of my moms reading group: Ruthie Cravens, Anne Davis, Sherry Sheffield Dougherty, Carroll Ray Kramer, Leila R. Kramer, Judy Kuehn, Kae Paterson, and Diane Sorrells.

My agent, Rafe Sagalyn, to whom Ive dedicated this book, has been a huge influence on my career as a writer. None of the books Ive written would have turned out the way they did without Rafes advice, expertise, and vision.

From the moment I met my editor, Alane Mason, in her offices overlooking the New York Public Library, I knew that she and I would make a great team. Her sensitive and sensible editing greatly improved the initial draft of this book. Marie Pantojan kept the publication process rolling. Rachelle Mandik did a spectacularly careful copyedit of the text. Will Scarlett skillfully handled publicity.

Finally, Id like to thank my wife, Lynn Olson, for her love and encouragement. A lifelong easterner, she instigated our move to the West that resulted in this book. She happily accompanied me on many trips to the mountain and listened for hours while I described what happened here or why this detail is important. And throughout the years of working on this book she never had anything less than complete confidence that what I was doing was worthwhile, which is about all a writer really needs.

Seattle, May 2015

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

STEVE OLSON is the author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, which was nominated for the National Book Award and received the Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers, and Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the Worlds Toughest Math Competition, which was named a best science book of the year by Discover magazine. His most recent book, co-written with Greg Graffin, is Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God. Except for three years as a writer in the White House science office, he has been a freelance writer and editor since 1979. He has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Science, Smithsonian, Seed, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, Wired, the Yale Alumni Magazine, the Washingtonian, Slate, Astronomy, Science 8286, and many other magazines. He now lives in Seattle, Washington.

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