I read in a trivia book the when Mt St Helen's erupted, that it was owned by some railroad. Is this true?

Yes, when Mt. St. Helens erupted, its summit was owned by Burlington Northern Railroad. It quickly passed into the hands of the United States Forrest Service.





However, I have no idea why they owned it, or wanted to own it. My best guesses would be either tourist income, if that happened, or perhaps as a radio repeater to communicate with the trains that ran west through Washington state to Seattle. Here in Southern California, Mt. Palomar has been used as a radio repeater as it is the highest mountain in the area. Now, however, since we have cell phones, very few people use repeater stations. They are now generally left to commercial radio stations. Modern ';big rig'; and train traffic uses cellular and satellite phone technology, with only a few people retaining CB radios. So, yeah... those are my only guesses. Even at that, though, I was only 5 when the mountain went off. I'm not sure if solar cell technology would have been up to the task of powering repeating stations. Just guesses.





But they did own it at the time of eruption.

Ltd