Reid Blackburn

Reid Turner Blackburn (August 11, 1952 – May 18, 1980) was an American photographer killed in the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. A photojournalist covering the eruption for a local newspaper—the Vancouver, Washington, The Columbian —as well as National Geographic magazine and the United States Geological Survey, he was caught at Coldwater Camp in the blast.

Blackburn's car and body were found four days after the eruption.

Blackburn attended Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Assignment at Mount St. Helens According to coworker and photo editor Steve Small, St. Helens was Blackburn's favorite mountain. They climbed it together several times, and referred to it as "the Sleeping Beauty of the Northwest."

During the eruption, Blackburn was able to trigger two remotely operated advanced Nikon cameras setup on tripods at his Coldwater I camp and at a location above Spirit Lake. Both were powered by a car battery and placed inside Styrofoam ice chests to protect them. His final notebook entries noted shots taken at 8:33 am and 8:34 am, and his notebook was found inside his radio transmitter case. Neither of the remote cameras were ever found.

Death Blackburn was killed when a pyroclastic flow enveloped the area where he was camped out. His car was found four days later, The windows had been broken and ash filled the interior of the vehicle.

In early June, National Geographic photographer Fred Stocker recovered Blackburn's camera from debris thick. The film was not salvageable, as the intense heat from the eruption had corrupted the negatives.

The 1980 event was the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States. A total of 57 people are known to have died, and more were left homeless when the ash falls and pyroclastic flows destroyed or buried 200 houses. In addition to Blackburn, local resident Harry R. Truman, photographer Robert Landsburg, and volcanologist David Alexander Johnston were killed.

Legacy After his death, friends and coworkers of Blackburn came forward to compliment his pleasant character and his talent. Friends described Blackburn as having "an impishness his friends came to expect." Tom Koenninger, editor of The Columbian, described Blackburn's humor as "wry" and sometimes "acerbic", but elaborated that Blackburn was "gentle, displaying aggression when it was necessary for him to get close to a subject he was photographing." worth $2,000.