Mount St. Helens Johnston Ridge Observatory reopens

Published 12:01 am Thursday, May 12, 2011

LONGVIEW — From whatever direction visitors gaze at Mount St. Helens this summer, they’ll be able to soak up more information along with the volcano views.

When the Johnston Ridge Observatory opens for the season on Saturday, the displays will include new movies and touch screen kiosks, whic

h will also be installed elsewhere around the peak as part of $1.6 million worth of improvements and enhancements.

New informational signs are going up at several locations, replacing ones that have faded in two decades of weather. And by mid-July, the JRO’s new 200-seat amphitheater is scheduled to open next to the visitor center at the east end of Spirit Lake Memorial Highway.

Representatives of the U.S. Forest Service and the nonprofit Mount St. Helens Institute, which offers educational programs at the peak, discussed the new tourist attractions Tuesday at the Cowlitz County Historical Museum.

The center of attention was a touch-screen “Return to Life” kiosk loaded with hundreds of photos and videos. Visitors can touch on a location on the main screen to access a science lesson from a Mount St. Helens expert.

“We’re trying to bring the three decades of biology research to the exhibits,” said Peter Frenzen, a scientist employed by the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

The Forest Service filmed researchers who gathered at the peak last summer to mark the 30th anniversary of the volcano’s most recent major eruption in 1980.

“It was the cream of the crop of St. Helens scientists,” Frenzen said. The scientists provided hundreds of photos and Forest Service also got footage from an Austrian film, “Life from Zero,” filmed for the 30th anniversary.

Three of the new kiosks will be stationed at the JRO, one at the Pine Creek Information Center south of the volcano and one at Monument headquarters in Amboy. The kiosk at the History Museum will stay there for a few months before being relocated at the Cascades Observatory on Road 99, which is currently snowed in.

Eventually, kiosk content will be added to the Institute’s website, from which some of it might be transferable to smart phones, Frenzen said.

Visitors to the JRO will also be able to see a newly remastered 16-minute movie, “Message from the Mountain.” It’s now projected in high definition, with booming surround sound. Starting this year, audio translation will be available in six languages, including Mandarin Chinese and Russian.

Monument Manager Tom Mulder said the opening of the amphitheater will allow more detailed presentations about the mountain. In the past, outdoor programs were limited by how long tourists were willing to stand on the concrete viewing platform. The Forest Service will be receptive to concerts and other gatherings at the amphitheater offered by outside groups, Mulder said, even if they run later than the JRO’s 6 p.m. closing time.

Elsewhere around the mountain, the Forest Service will have six additional field rangers this year to give talks along Road 99 and at Windy Ridge.

The Forest Service has contracted with the Mount St. Helens Institute to replace interpretive signs that were getting hard to read. New technology makes the photos vivid, Frenzen said.

Mulder said the Forest Service has received “a couple of nibbles” from people about operating the cafeteria at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center, which closed in 2007. If a contract can be negotiated in the next month, food service and gift shop — but not exhibits — could reopen at Coldwater this summer, he said.