Return to Spirit Lake: Life and Landscape at Mount St. Helens

by Christine Colasurdo

Few natural disasters can match a volcanic eruption for the total destruction of a familiar landscape. Journalist Christine Colasurdo first visited Spirit Lake, which is at the base of Mount St. Helens, in Washington State as a child in 1970. When her parents purchased a cabin there in 1977, Colasurdo planned to make the area her permanent home. The volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 not only destroyed a beloved setting, but permanently ended Colasurdo's plans for living and working at Spirit Lake. Her work is a graceful blend of personal observations (pre- and post-eruption), scientific documentation of volcanic activity, and the earlier-than-expected regeneration of life and landscape. An active environmentalist, Colasurdo addresses the effects of logging and reseeding in the area. Her book is a testament to the resilience of both landscape and human spirit.

315 pages, Hardcover

Reviews

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up during the run up to our first trip to Mount St Helens and finished it while spending a three day weekend there. An odd choice for a reminder of what actually happened there and then. For me a latter day Portlander for whom the eruption was semi ancient history, it was a chance to see what growing up in the area then meant. This book is oddly paced and melancholic and nostalgic. It's basically two parts memoir and reaction and one part science and history. It definitely has it's slow parts, but it's beautiful and informative and led me to do the long drive to the east side of the Mountain to visit Spirit Lake though not quite touch it, which was an absolute wowzer.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most beloved professors are those who love the subject they teach, and Christine Colasurdo is such a devotée of the Mount St. Helens backcountry. This book is a tribute to the landscape written by a friend who knows it well. Her writing is intimate and heartfelt, scientifically informed and tinged with surprising humor. It is fascinating to learn about the mountain and its nearby lakes, profound and ever-varying personalities in themselves, and to see the author learn from them and change along with them as the years pass.

[D Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed Christine’s book which deeply connected memories of Loowit with nature, botany, and geology. I remember jumping off the dock into Spirit Lake and visiting their cabin while the mountain rumbled with early warning tremors. The book brought back memories of rowing from the Lodge to Bear Cove and hiking up to the ridge. Thank you for the beautiful writing and we miss you.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a mourning of place and a study of natural history. It took some time for me to finish because I felt the author's palpable sadness.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the intertwining of the author's heartfelt emotions around the place and the scientific findings/stories. At times the anthropomorphization of elements of the natural world is grating, but Colusardo acknowledges the folly of that kind of thinking, so even as it bubbles onto the page, at least we know she's aware of it.
I read this during and after the unleashing of the Klamath from its dams. I fervently hope the Army Corps and others let the dams on this mountain go, sooner rather than later, for the benefit of all, not just the colonizing humans.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegantly mixing memoir, science and natural history, Colasurdo brings to life both pre and post eruption experiences on Mt. St. Helens. This is a new addition, first published in 1995. She grew up at Spirit Lake and then revisited her childhood haunts in the totally new landscape after 1980. A remarkable book written with heart and the spirit of the mountain.