Entrepreneurial Spirit

The Mt. St. Helens volcano exploded on May 18, 1980. One of those events that anchors one of those do you remember where you were when it happened questions in Pacific Northwest history. And for those who grew up here, evokes memory of seeing a thin layer or more of ash covering streets and objects, cars and trees, and lawns and mailboxes and sidewalks and park benches around Washington and Oregon, including the Portland metro area and the UP campus.

Naturally, over time, some of that ash has been donated to the University Museum. Little glass jars with post-it-notes affixed, discarded by the original collector, seeking preservation and adoption on Museum shelves. But then too, we have the curious exemplum of a quite clever, lightning quick exploit-the-moment entrepreneurial insight. The Pet Volcano. The brain-child of two alumni entrepreneurs, Tim Wagner, ’81, and Marc McDevitt, ’74, the Mt. St. Helens ash was repurposed to create a novelty desktop paperweight. Their limited edition Pet Volcano had 250,000 sales by Christmas 1980. An original Pet Volcano with its box cover still lives in the UP museum.