On May 18, 1980, a massive earthquake-caused landslide caused Mount St. Helens in Southwest Washington to explode, blasting 1,312 feet off the top of the 9,677 foot mountain. The blast killed nearly every living thing in a 212 square mile area. The explosion and resulting mudflows also killed 57 people and destroyed nearly 200 homes.

Naturally, this was a huge news story, especially in the Northwest. Here's how a few of the newspapers in the area played it the next day.

The Oregonian, about 50 miles from the peak, is the nearest large daily. The Daily News is in Longview, Wash., only about 40 miles from the volcano. The 27,500-circulation daily, with a staff of 29, doggedly covered the story, publishing 420 stories in the first two weeks and 2,200 in the first year. In 1981 the Daily News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for local spot news reporting, with special mention given to the photographs by Roger A. Werth, who took the picture on the front page. As always, click on the above images to enlarge, but to see an even larger 1000-pixel wide scan of The Oregonian cover, click here.

Here's a double truck the Daily News ran May 19. The paper has a site with many of the stories, photographs and pages they published after the eruption.

The Oregon Journal of Portland and Capital Journal of Salem, Ore., were PM's and since the mountain erupted on a Sunday morning, they didn't get their first crack at the story until Monday afternoon. Extra large versions of these covers are here and here.

And here are a few Northwest papers and their anniversary front pages.

The Oregonian and The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash. One of the eruption's victims, 27-year-old Reid Blackburn, was a Columbian staff photographer. Those are his glasses in the centerpiece.

The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The News Tribune of Tacoma and the Spokesman-Review of Spokane. The ash from the eruption went generally east, hitting the area around Spokane the hardest.

The Statesman Journal of Salem, Ore., and The Register-Guard of Eugene, Ore.