THE MT. LASSEN ERUPTION 



By Richard H. Boerker 



MT. LASSEN, the only active 

 volcano in the United States 

 proper, is situated in the 

 southeastern part of Shasta 

 County, California, and is the last of a 

 series of great volcanic cones which 

 begin with Mt. Rainier in Washington. 

 In years gone by this series of volcanoes 

 was instrumental in upbuilding the 

 mountainous region of the Pacific 

 Northwest. 



The first eruption occurred in the 

 latter part of May, 1914, and it is 

 stated upon good authority that the 

 first outbreak seen by local inhabitants 

 was on May 29. Since then fifty or 

 more eruptions have occurred and with 

 very few exceptions these have been of 

 ever increasing violence. The last erup- 

 tions of which the writer has any knowl- 

 edge are indeed said to have been ac- 

 companied by luminous bombs and fire. 



The writer had the good fortune of 

 being stationed in the proximity of Mt. 

 Lassen most of the past summer and 

 witnessed many of the eruptions. The 

 first trip made to the summit was 

 accomplished on June 4, and the trip, 

 made for the most part over deep snow, 

 wound up on the summit in a howling 

 snowstorm. We were compelled to 

 spend the night at the brink of the 

 hissing crater in the Fire Lookout Sta- 

 tion on the topmost pinnacle, 10,437 

 feet in the air. The next morning, 

 June 5, the mountain was lost in the 

 thick haze and snow clouds and prac- 

 tically nothing could be seen until noon 

 time. At that time the descent into 

 the old crater was made and the new 

 crater was viewed. The huge gap 

 measured 275 feet long and evidently 

 was then in one of the pauses between 

 heavy explosions. Thick volumes of 



Mt. Lassen's Hissing Crater on Sept. 3, 1914. 



this crater's mouth was eight hundred feet long and from one hundred to four hundred feet wide and 

 about one hundred feet deep. note the figures of the three men on the right hand side of the crater, 

 and the steam and smoke on the left hand side. the peak in the background is almost hidden by the 

 smoke haze. 



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