Hello 4103-ga,
According to the museum of hoaxes, the 1974 eruption of Mount
Edgecumbe near Sitka, Alaska was one of the top 100 April Fool's Day
Hoaxes of all time.
“In 1974 residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant
volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out
billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the
streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again
and might soon erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was
responsible for the smoke. A local prankster named Porky Bickar had
flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit
them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers
into believing that the volcano was stirring to life.”
The result:
“According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years
later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, "This time you've
gone too far!"
Source: Museum of Hoaxes
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/top100.html
At the Travel Sitka website it is described as follows:
“In the year 1974, a dozen or so of Sitka's finest minds decided that
the town stood in need of a history lesson. They planned to reacquaint
Sitkans with their past their geologic past, that is.
Having waited for years for just the right conditions, the
conspirators gathered before dawn on the first clear April 1st in a
decade. Somehow they had managed to cajole, bribe, or possibly hijack
a helicopter pilot into airlifting a rather ordinary cargo of seventy
old tires to a rather extraordinary destination: inside the crater of
Mt. Edgecumbe, the huge extinct volcano looming over Sitka Sound. The
tires were doused with diesel fuel, and then set ablaze. The ad hoc
faculty of Geology 101 headed home for breakfast.
While most everyone who lives in Sitka knows the area is rich in
history, few realized just how rich it was until they awoke that
morning to see thick, black smoke belching from the summit of Mt.
Edgecumbe for the first time in 8,000 years or so.”
Travel Sitka Website
http://www.travelsitka.com/history.html
Search Criteria:
974 eruption of Edgecumbe volcano 1974
I hope this helps - if you have any questions or if your request
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Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga |
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