There's Copper in Them Thar Hills

Street Smart Naturalist · Nov 13, 2025 · 7m

Mount St. Helens is best known for the epic eruption of 1980 when it spewed its guts 90,000 feet in the air and spread the debris around the globe. Far less known is that 75 years before the eruption, some of Mount St. Helens’ innards made their way to Portland, Oregon, in a much less violent manner. The material though was well-traveled, having gone from the mountain to New York before returning west. And, when it returned, it was in a new form, having been turned into a statue of Sacagawea, which was unveiled on July 6, 1905, at Portland’s Lewis and Clark Exposition.

The creation story of…