Observatory to Give Peek Into Volcano
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Associated Press
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Ever since Mt. St. Helens blew its top, visitors have craved a straight-on view into the crater.
Now it’s available, weather permitting, as the star attraction of a $10.5-million visitor center built into a ridge next to the volcano.
The Johnston Ridge Observatory opens this weekend, 17 years after the volcano’s deadly eruption on May 18, 1980.
The mountaintop exploded with the force of a 24-megaton nuclear bomb, killing 57 people and devastating 230 square miles.
The volcano has been virtually inactive since 1986.
In clear weather--about a third of the time--the shattered mountain can be seen looming over a rocky terrain punctuated by a few green patches of grass, shrubs and trees.
