Amphitheater at St. Helens crater nearing completion

Seattle TImes: Amphitheater at St. Helens crater nearing completion
MOUNT ST. HELENS — Work on the amphitheater at Johnston Ridge, a project first conceived of nearly two decades ago, is coming down the homestretch, but officials don't know if it will be ready in time for this tourist season.

That, as with most things at Mount St. Helens, will be up to Mother Nature.

Cut into a slope directly north of the volcano, the outdoor amphitheater will give tourists the opportunity to hear presentations about the mountain's eruptions with the peak looming directly in front of them. Speakers will appear to speak from the very maw of the volcano's crater.

Completion of the amphitheater will greatly enhance visits to Johnston Ridge Observatory, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.

Modeled after ancient Greek theaters, the semicircular facility will allow rangers to give longer, more detailed talks than the 10- to 20-minute presentations now given at the Johnston Ridge plaza, said Todd Cullings, assistant manager of the observatory.

"It is a really stunning view," Cullings said Monday. "This also will provide a quieter spot. (The observatory) is a very busy site. It is away from the plaza deck and off to the side. It will be a place for people to sit and contemplate. It is also one of the few spots where there are shattered tree stumps and blown-down trees right in the foreground."

The Johnston Ridge Observatory's interpretive message focuses on the volcano, its crater and the eruption on May 18, 1980, that killed 57 people and laid waste an expanse of forest. A curtain in its movie theater parts to reveal a view of the volcano through a window after films are shown. The amphitheater, however, will put visitors right in the landscape as they're learning about it, said Peter Frenzen, scientist in charge of the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

"The story of Mount St. Helens is much more than the crater and the eruption. It is the landscape and the recreation of the (damaged) landscape. You need to be outside. What the visitors gain is to be actually looking at the landscape and being part of the landscape while they are hearing and learning about it. It is pretty amazing."

The amphitheater will hold from 100 to 150 people "depending on how you pack them in," Frenzen said.

Forest Service officials first conceived of the amphitheater when planning the Johnston Ridge Observatory some 20 years ago, but funding for it was cut and the observatory opened in 1997 without it. It's part of about $600,000 in improvements funded this year at the observatory.

The amphitheater will likely be used for other types of presentations — such as poetry readings, musical performances and artistic presentations — on a case-by-case basis as long as they are compatible with other uses and the purpose of the observatory, Frenzen said.

Workers are expected to pour the last of the concrete for the amphitheater this week, but whether work is complete in time for presentations this fall will depend on the weather, Cullings said.

The observatory, which is located at more than 4,000 feet above sea level, closes every winter because of snowfall.