CHAPTER 35: 50 Years After The Eruption

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“It is with heavy hearts that we must announce our website will be ceasing operations effective in ninety days. In spite of our best efforts to keep this publication going, the long-term economic hardships brought about by the Mount Rainier eruption half a century ago have in the end proved impossible to overcome...”

BBC World News

“The United States has long prided herself on being ‘one nation indivisible’, but that belief is being put to the test by a radical political movement recently organized by two survivors of the Mount Rainier disaster that devastated Seattle and Tacoma fifty years ago. The movement’s principal goal, as stated by its online manifesto, is to establish what are presently the states of Washington and Oregon as a separate country...”

Al-Jazeera

“Members of what is popularly known as the Free Cascadia marched in Seattle today calling for the states of Washington and Oregon to secede from the rest of the USA...”

Sports Illustrated

“Next week, barring another eleventh-hour miracle, the Mariners will in all likelihood leave Seattle for good. The fan base that once supported them has shrunk to almost nothing as a consequence of the population exodus and economic hardships inflicted on the Emerald City by the Mount Rainier eruption half a century ago...”

New England Journal Of Medicine

“Lung disease continues to be a significant health problem in the Pacific Northwest due in large part to the atmospheric contaminants generated by the Mount Rainier volcanic eruption some 50 years ago...”

Nine News

“A member of the American Free Cascadia movement is under arrest tonight in Seattle, charged with murdering a local journalist who’d written online articles critical of the separatist organization and its aim of making Washington and Oregon a separate country...”

Forbes

“The stunning announcement last week by Boeing that it will shortly be filing for bankruptcy is not only a serious body blow to the U.S. aviation industry but also a reflection of the economic misfortunes that the Pacific Northwest has been struggling with since the Mount Rainier volcanic eruption fifty years ago....”

CBC News At Six

“Alberta and British Columbia are seeing an upsurge in emigration of Americans from the Pacific Northwest states as the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate...”

MSNBC.com

DEVELOPING STORY--Explosions heard at Space Needle II site; Free Cascadia alleged to have set off bombs

CHAPTER 38: 100 Years After The Eruption

From a plaque erected at the former site of Space Needle II:

THIS MONUMENT IS DEDICATED TO THE 250,729 PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE CASCADIA REBELLION

From the e-book Rainier: A Story Of Fire And Ice:

We are still living with the consequences of the Mount Rainier eruption a full century after it happened-- and not simply the devastating changes which it wrought on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere or the geography of the Pacific Northwest. The aftermath of the disaster, and discontent regarding the United States government’s response to it, would prove to a major ingredient in kindling the Cascadia Rebellion of the late 21st century...

From the Mount Rainier Eruption Centennial Committee’s official commemorative book printed on the 100th anniversary of the eruption:

The violence of the Free Cascadia insurgency proved every bit as devastating as the volcanic disaster that had preceded it. Even today the streets of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and many more cities in this region still show hints of the destruction wrought by that conflict....

From a report by the U.N. Committee On Climate Change:

The evidence presented in this document suggests that we are, at most, only ten years away from the new Ice Age predicted by scientists since the Mount Rainier volcanic eruption a century ago...

From the USGS National Seismic Disaster Warning Center:

Residents of the Seattle-Tacoma area are advised that signs have been detected of an impending earthquake in the 7.5-8.0 range, with the epicenter likely to be northeast of Seattle...

EPILOGUE: 1000 Years After The Eruption

From an exhibit display case at a museum of science and natural history:

This mobile communicator was recovered from the ruins of Se-at-hal by the first archeological expedition to Mer-ee-kah....

From the introduction to a scholastic textbook on human history:

This volume of the Great Civilizations of History series will focus mainly on the now-vanished Mer-ee-kan society and its abrupt, mysterious demise in the so-called “New Ice Age” which followed the Mount Rainier(now Mount Silmora) volcanic eruption in the Age of Catastrophe...

From the diary of an archeological expedition to the ruins of Tacoma:

We’ve just arrived at the primary dig site and already we’ve found a dozen or more skeletal remains...it appears the onset of the New Ice Age caught many of the inhabitants of Ta-koh-mah by surprise....

From a signpost five miles outside Mount Silmora(formerly Mount Rainier):

Visitors to this area are reminded to approach Mt. Silmora with caution due to high winds and extreme cold....

THE END

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