Join us for Volcano Views & Brews lecture series with the Mt St Helens Institute!

This months topic: TBD

Presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. - Join us anytime after 5:00 p.m. for food and drink. $5 suggested donation.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Lawetlat'la) erased virtually all traces of the decades of recreational development at Sprit Lake that was, by the 1970s, doing its best to accommodate ever-growing numbers of summer visitors. The lake today in many ways evokes the more natural, wild, and remote place that existed when only local tribes knew of its existence. This presentation is a remembrance, of sorts, of the people and the places at Spirit Lake - an overview of the human story there from "time immemorial" to the eruption of 1980.

Rick McClure is the former Heritage and Tribal Programs Manager for Gifford Pinchot National Forest. He first climbed Mount St. Helens (Lawetlat'la) in 1975. Educated as an archaeologist and anthropologist, his primary Forest Service responsibilities involved identification, documentation, and protection of archaeological, historical, and traditional cultural resources within the national forest. During his career he served similar roles for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and the Mount Hood National Forest. Rick retired from the Forest Service in 2014, since then serving as a consultant, spending more time out on the trail, and enjoying grandchildren. Rick and his wife Cheryl, authors of "For the Greatest Good: Early History of Gifford Pinchot National Forest" (NW Interpretive Association) live in Trout Lake, Washington.