Californians are accustomed to being battered by many of nature's whims. Earthquakes, wildfires, droughts and floods are all regular visitors. Less familiar are volcanic eruptions like the one currently taking place at Hawaii's Mauna Loa. But while that event feels worlds away, California's own volcanoes are capable of violent fury — and have shown it off in recent memory.
For 3 million years, Mount Lassen has bubbled and boiled beneath Earth's surface. Rarely does it erupt, but in late May 1914 — 27,000 years after its last explosion — the beast awoke.
At first, the activity was slow. For miles around, Northern California residents could see smoke billowing from the peak's summit. Today, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey know what was occurring was a steam blast. "Steam blasts occur when molten rock (magma) rises toward the surface of a volcano and heats shallow ground water," the USGS says. "The hot water rises under pressure through cracks and, on nearing the surface, vaporizes and vents explosively."
For a year, Lassen smoked off and on, a gentle warning of what was to come. On May 14, 1915, sightseers were shocked to see undulating crimson lava flowing down Lassen's flanks for the first time. As soon as word spread, people from as far away as Susanville began packing into cars to drive closer to the action. Among the lookie-loos was Benjamin Franklin Loomis, a Manzanita Lake business owner and amateur photographer. Loomis' striking photographs of Mount Lassen's eruption were among the first ever taken of an active volcano.
A photographic postcard shows Lassen Peak erupting from downtown Red Bluff in 1915. (Photo: William Holmes Spaulding/National Park Service)
Unbeknownst to the residents of Shasta and Lassen counties, that flowing lava was forming a disastrous setup. As the molten rock hit Lassen's ground, it melted tons of snowpack. On May 20, 1915, the Redding Record Searchlight, under the headline "Mt. Lassen Surely Did Belch Fire Last Night," reported that witnesses saw magma several hundred feet high shooting out of the top of Lassen Peak.
"When the first report was sounded here that Mount Lassen was on fire, people rang telephones and rushed out into the open to see the most wonderful sight of their lives," the Record Searchlight wrote.
Two days later, some saw the most terrifying sight of their lives. Shortly before 4:30 in the morning, park ranger Fred Seaborn awoke to the sound of rushing water outside his station. Through the darkness, the savvy ranger was able to quickly piece together what was happening: All that snow melted by the lava was rushing downhill in a flash flood.
Seaborn leaped on his horse and raced to Hat Creek Valley, a small settlement of about three dozen farmers. He went from house to house, screaming for the residents to get out. Some barely did; the Hall family, wearing just their pajamas, scrambled up a hill moments before their house was swept off its foundation. Thanks to Seaborn's warning, everyone in the valley got out safely. Almost every home, barn and outbuilding, however, was badly damaged or destroyed.
Smoke billows from Lassen Peak in California on Oct. 6, 1915. (Photo: Donaldson Collection/Getty Images)
"The bridges are gone and the highway is buried beneath a slush of mud," the Record Searchlight wrote. "The only way to travel is by horseback, riding well up on the sides of the hills on either side of the valley."
"There are no ashes, no lava, — just mud, mud — mud everywhere," it added.
Three hundred miles away, the ash landed. In Golconda, Nevada, a telegraph operator wired to Reno that ash was falling like snow. In some places, it accumulated 2 inches deep. "Residents of that section of Nevada experienced a peculiar sensation in the nostrils and throat after being exposed to the ashes for a short time," the Nevada State Journal reported. "The air was heavy and charged with a peculiar and somewhat offensive odor."
The eruptions of 1914-1915 utterly transformed Mount Lassen. A 3-mile area around the peak was renamed, succinctly and accurately, Devastated Area. Even today, there are places where the landscape is stunningly desolate. Only the bravest of trees ventured to grow there, and not until some 50 years after the last eruptions shook the ground. Lassen Peak itself also changed; photos taken before 1914 show a perfect conical summit. Afterward, it had ragged craters from where huge blocks of rock and lava blasted out of its top.
Today, the destruction of the 1915 eruption can still be seen in Lassen's landscape.
(Photo: Diego Cupolo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
If you're wondering if Lassen could erupt like that again, it can. Scientists believe the Lassen Volcanic National Park area has been volcanically active for millions of years, and the ground itself is a constant reminder of the volcano's power.
"While the area sleeps now, steam vents, boiling springs, and bubbling mudpots remain active — direct evidence that the volcanic center still smolders," the National Park Service says. "No one can say when or where the next eruption will occur. We can only say that it will."
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