In December 2005, Manaro, the volcano in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu showed signs it was about to erupt. Smoke and ashes shot up from the crater and many of the population fled their homes. In point of fact the volcano did not erupt. However, as the old year came to an end and we entered a new one, news flashed around the world that the South Pacific had experienced a large earthquake. Could there, I wonder, be a connection?

Mount St. Helens, located in the Washington State in the Pacific Northwest, also a volcano, erupted in May 1980. The eruption is attributed to an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale. Certainly, this was not the first time this mountain had outbelched larva, smoke and ash in its 50,000 history of eruption. This time the north face collapsed in a gigantic avalanche of sand, rock and larva, taking with it 230 square miles of verdant forest. The volcano spewed a mushroom cloud high into the sky that turned day into night and scattered gray ash over most of eastern Washington State and the surrounding area. The eruption itself lasted a mere nine hours but the affects felt as far away as Canada, have changed the area out of all recognition. It was as if an atom bomb had exploded in the area on that day almost 26 years ago.

In 1982, President Reagan and Congress voted to create 110,00 acre National Volcanic Monument not only to mark the events of that fateful day in May 1980, but also to take from what was described as a national disaster and turn something negative into a positive creation. Within the Park that comprises the Monument the land is left alone to recover from the shattering disturbance it had experienced. Slowly and without the help of man the area is beginning to return to life. The once gray, larva strewn terrain is now gently turning green as plants and shrubs take root within the ash and debris. Bird life, which deserted the area after the eruption, is now coming back and the elk that lived and grazed within the surrounding forest are now straying back to what was once their natural habitat. Who says these creatures do not have instinctual memory?

For the traveler who remembers the graphic TV pictures of the Mount St. Helens disaster a trip to the National Monument will help restore faith in the notion that no matter what happens, it will pass and life will move on to its next mighty stage of growth and development.