The Mount St. Helens Foray | PRAx | Oregon State University

The Mount St. Helens Foray: Geographies of Destruction and Renewal | June 2005

Location: Mount St. Helens

On July 21-24, 2005, Spring Creek Project hosted a gathering of 20 creative writers, scientists, philosophers and others on Mount St. Helens for four days of camping, hiking, learning, and sharing insights about the meaning of cataclysms and the sources of renewal.

The foray harnessed the power of this compelling place to explore ideas of destruction and rebirth in geological, ecological and human terms. The gathering asked the question: What can this radically altered landscape tell us about how to understand nature and how to live our lives?

group of philosophers on the mount st helens project — The Mount St. Helens Foray included creative writers, scientists, and philosophers. Pictured here, front row, left to right: Kim Stafford, John Calderazzo, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tony Vogt, Nick Houtman; middle row: Jim Sedell, Gary Braasch, Ann Zwinger, Lynn Burdett; back row: Jerry Franklin, Fred Swanson, Tim McNulty, Scott Russell Sanders, Nalini Nadkarni, Charlie Crisafulli, Robert Michael Pyle.

After the gathering, the group collaborated on the book project "In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mt. St. Helens," and the project was featured in the Terra Research article “20/20 Vision” about the Spring Creek Project. Eric Wagner's book, After the Blast was inspired by events and discoveries connected to the foray. The online journal Terrain.org also published a series on the gathering, including the following: