SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. — Dozens of items that survived the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens are once again on display for the general public.
“Mount St. Helens has always been an interest of mine,” said said Joe Bongiovanni, owner of the Mount St. Helens & Bigfoot Interpretive Center.
He bought dozens of eruption artifacts in 2022 from the Ottosen family and now has them on display.
The Ottosens opened The Museum of Mount St. Helens, featuring vehicles, logging equipment, and personal items found in the debris following the May 18, 1980 eruption.
Most of the original owners died in the eruption that took 57 lives.
“We focus on the person that was involved with it,” said Bongiovanni, who said he hopes to make the exhibit a tribute to those who were lost. “In this world, a little bit of respect goes a long way."
The largest item now on display is a Volvo owned by photographer Reid Blackburn.
The 27-year-old man documented the weeks leading up to the eruption for The Columbian newspaper, National Geographic magazine, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The morning of the eruption he was about seven miles from the volcano, in what was thought to be a safe area.
Blackburn, and his photographs, did not survive the eruption. Days later his body was found inside his Volvo.
The Ottosens paid to have Blackburn’s car removed from ash and made it part of the Museum of Mount St. Helens.
After the museum closed, Bongiovanni said the car was left outdoors until he purchased it.
He has cleaned out the vehicle, set up an indoor space to display it, and plans to surround it with Blackburn’s photographs and quotes Blackburn used for inspiration.
Bongiovanni has already had students of all ages visit the car.
He said Blackburn also visited schools before the eruption describing what he had seen at Mount St. Helens.
”This is a person that, obviously, admired education right?” said Bongiovanni, “And did his best to educate the next generations. Well, he’s still doing that now.”
Fay Blackburn, Reid's widow, said she has no animosity towards Bongiovanni for putting her husband's car on display.
She said, unlike her husband, she did not have an emotional attachment to the vehicle.