Old Camera Found At Goodwill Contained Photos Of A Forgotten Tragedy
We try to push our fears to the back of our minds. No one wants to think about meteors slamming into the earth, floods wiping out cities, or tornados scooping up homes. But if we don’t consider the risks, we can’t prepare for the possibilities.
Kati Dimoff got a taste of the world’s dangers when she stumbled across a camera containing scenes from a forgotten disaster. She was thrifting at a Goodwill in Portland, Oregon, when a photo time capsule became her most prized discovery. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.
Picture Perfect
In Portland, a love of photography comes with the citizenship. Kati Dimoff counts herself as one of the many local photographers who snaps photos of the surrounding Cascadia region. Kati's favorite hobby, however, requires even more patience than waiting for her film to process.
Thrift Shopping
Kati frequents her local thrifts shops in search of old cameras with undeveloped photos. She tells The Oregonian: “The first roll of undeveloped film I ever found had a photo of the Portland International Raceway in maybe the ’70s or the '80s. That inspired me to keep looking for old film in Goodwill cameras.”
A Vintage Treasure
One spring day in Portland, Kati stepped inside her favorite Goodwill and picked up an Argus C2 camera model, which hadn’t been in production for 75 years. The cartridge inside appeared to be aged. Kati rushed it over to a processing lab that specialized in developing old film, but they were missing something.
Tech Obstacles
The lab didn't have the proper machinery to develop the 40-year-old photos in color. Thankfully, they were able to process them in black-and-white, which was plenty for Kati. When she came to pick up the prints, the lab workers had to let her know how special her discovery was.
Developing Intrigue
Despite a bit of damage here and there, the lab experts had done a fantastic job. Kati stared at the photos in awe. One of the photos was enough to ignite her search for the camera's owner.
Happy Family
The photo showed what appeared to be a young couple standing in a yard with their baby, whom was being held by either its grandmother or great-grandmother. Kati turned to the media to help her identify the smiling relatives.
Spreading the Word
The Oregonian shared the story across the region. Kati wondered if the owners even remembered the camera, let alone the infamous scenes it contained. If she could find them, their reaction would surely be priceless. Two days later, her wish came true.
He Looks Familiar
A man named Mel Purvis was scrolling through an article his buddy had sent him when he nearly fell off his chair. Not only did he recognize the figures in the photo — he was one of them! Mel got in touch with The Oregonian immediately and told them all the details.
Family Outing
The photo was taken in 1980. It depicted Mel, his wife, his grandmother, and his infant son Tristan all preparing to attend a football game. The photo was taken to capture his grandmother's first time meeting her newborn grandson. Unfortunately, Mel had a bit of tragedy to share.
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A Grandson's Regrets
A year after the photo was taken, Mel's grandmother passed away without the chance to see her grandson grow up. To make matters worse, the family had just lost Tristan in 2009 when he was just 30. The photo brought back bittersweet memories for Mel, who says the camera wasn't even his.
The Camera's Owner
It was Mel’s grandmother, Faye Gardner, who owned the Argus C2. The rest of the incredible photos had been taken by her. Mel didn't know what had become of his grandmother's belongings until now. Upon seeing the rest of the prints, Mel was able to identify the region and confirm the captured event.
Another Subject
At first, the photos seemed unassuming. One depicted a line-up of homes and buildings on a springtime day, much like the one when Kati came across Faye's camera. There were a few clouds overhead, but the film damage made it difficult to notice any details.
A Distant Detail
The next photo was just as unremarkable as the last. It showed the Lewis and Clark Bridge, which connects Washington and Oregon. There was nothing too special about the shot, so why was Faye snapping away? It wasn't until the next photo that her intentions were clear.
Clouds of Smoke
The same line-up of homes and buildings from a few photos back were present. Except now, it was clear that the sky wasn't filling with clouds, but with smoke. When Kati first picked up the photos at the lab, the workers had left her a note asking, "Is this from the Mount St. Helens eruption?"
That Fateful Morning
On the morning of May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens was rocked by a 4.0-magnitude earthquake. Experts were expecting the hit, but they only had three days to prepare before the quake rippled out, causing a mess of 4.0 tremors for days on end. Citizens were fixed on the mountain, which was beginning to grow.
Volcanic Destruction
Out of the side of the mountain, a massive bulge pushed its way through. The boiling magma beneath was searching for an escape route, and the land beneath the 450-foot bulge crumbled as the side of the mountain erupted. This was nothing like the school science fair volcanos you're used to.
Miles of Ash
This sideways force, called a nuée ardente, pummeled everything in its 8-mile path. The burning gases flew through the air faster than the speed of their own sound. A shockwave the size of 352 football fields followed, causing Mount St. Helens to burst upwards in textbook fashion. Faye was frantically attempting to capture this moment.
Picking up the Pieces
The explosion, reminiscent of a nuclear blast, coated the skies of eight surrounding states. The resulting damages cost over $1 billion. America has yet to see an eruption as devastating, but with the mountain still active, there's no telling what the future may bring. Kati remained puzzled about one peculiar detail.
A Remaining Mystery
In an email to Fox News, Kati admitted to her intrigue. "I was curious how it could be that anyone would shoot images of the eruption, which was such an iconic time here in the Pacific Northwest, and not run right out and get them developed.” Even without an answer, Kati knew one thing.
A Special Place
“Mount St. Helens is my favorite place. It feels sacred there. So, when I realized my found film had images of the eruption, it felt like it was meant to be.” Forty years laters, the world couldn't agree more. Volcanoes remain sites of fascination — especially active ones.
Kawika Singson's a media personality and devoted adventurer who hosts an online show called Everything Hawaii. He takes viewers to the most scenic areas of the archipelago, and he doesn't shy away from the more dangerous areas, either.
That includes volcanoes — yeah, those massive mountain peaks that spew thousands of tons of ash and molten hot lava every so often. And Hawaii, the large island within the state, has five of them scattered throughout its land mass.
Kawika wanted to take a solo adventure around the volcanoes, so he journeyed into the Mauna Loa Forest Reserve. It didn't take long before he came upon a massive opening in the trees that made him gasp.
It was an enormous crater pit caused by the Mauna Loa volcano. This was one of three active volcanoes on Hawaii. Even though it was risky to explore, Kawika powered on towards the formation. He needed footage for his show.
There was some danger involved, of course, but he wasn't too worried. Around each of the volcanoes are lookout points where experts and researchers can keep an eye on any activity. If a volcano was getting aggressive, they could give ample warning.
Meanwhile, as he hiked, he was well aware there was a chance of stumbling upon batches of lava that hadn't completely hardened yet. One step could instantly cost him a foot, so Kawika was super cautious.
He had with him a camera and tripod so he could capture some great footage for the newest episode of Everything Hawaii. As he was looking through his lens, he spotted something odd in the distance.
So, he packed up his camera and carefully made his way over the hardened formations until he reached a rusted metal object protruding from a mass of lava. He bent down to get a closer look.
At first, he was completely confused. It looked like an old rusted soup bowl, the lost cargo of an explorer from decades ago. But then he looked closer and realized just how dangerous this item was.
It was an undetonated bomb! Kawika stood up and his jaw hit the floor. What was a massive bomb doing wedged into hardened lava? Then, he turned his head and gasped again!
There was a second bomb not too far away! It, too, was stuck inside a mound of rock-hard magma. What the heck were two live bombs doing inside Mauna Loa? Kawika had a pretty good idea.
Back in the 1930, there was a man named Thomas A. Jaggar, a volcanologist. This guy dedicated his life to learning everything he could about volcanoes, and he founded a famous observatory in Hawaii.
It was called the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and it served as the main hub where scientists and researchers studied the activity of all five volcanoes of Hawaii. Even though two weren't active, experts could never be sure they'd stay that way.
Jagger and his team of experts worked tirelessly to ensure they were able to gather enough information to protect residents of Hawaii from volcanic activity. The team was truly tested in 1933 when Mauna Loa erupted.
The United States Geological Survey wrote, “Following a Mauna Loa summit eruption in 1933, Jaggar predicted that a flank eruption would occur on the volcano within two years and might threaten (the town of) Hilo." His hoped his prediction didn't come true.
But in 1935, Mauna Loa blew again, and the nearby town of Hilo was in grave danger. Jagger, along with his team, scrambled to come up with a safe solution, which depended upon the Army Air Corps.
The plan was to have a military plane drop 20 "pointer bombs" onto the land surrounding the pools of lava that were collecting to create new channels to divert to he lava from Hilo's path. The military agreed.
Smithsonian Magazine wrote, "Through complicated and sustained efforts, like cooling lava with water or building barriers to stop the flow, a volcano’s eruption can sometimes be redirected." Miraculously, it worked, but Kawika found the two bombs that never exploded.
Kawika came across a decades-old piece of history, and he knew the importance of the volcano-bombing process. He caught great footage for his show and was always looking for more opportunities to teach his viewers. He was curious about other Pacific islands too.
Since their discovery in the 16th century, the Galápagos Islands have captivated visitors with their diverse array of flora and fauna. Over 200 species call the archipelago home, most of which can only be found on the islands.
The islands are perhaps best known for their giant tortoises, most of which live well beyond 100 years old. Galápagos finches are also prevalent, the very same that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution more than 150 years ago.
Yet most people don't realize that the Galápagos Islands are highly volcanic. In fact, on Darwin's first voyage to the area in 1835, he actually referred to it as "that land of craters."
Isabela Island — the largest of the Galápagos — is home to five active volcanoes alone, including the imposing Wolf Volcano. The highest peak in the Galápagos, Wolf Volcano also features some of the area's most treacherous terrain.
This wasn't enough to deter the American and Ecuadorian herpetologists that set their sights on Isabela in late 2019. Their journey wasn't going to be one of light walks and tortoise photos, however: they had a species to save.
That species was the Conolophus marthae, more commonly known as the pink land iguana. Critically endangered with only around 200 mature individuals remaining, the pink land iguana can only be found in the areas surrounding Wolf Volcano.
The scientists were seeking to document the remaining iguanas in the hope of better understanding the unique needs of the dwindling population. But the journey from the small entry island of Baltra to the treacherous peaks of Wolf Volcano wasn't going to be an easy one.
"It takes a long, very expensive expedition, and once you get there you have to climb the slopes of the volcano, which takes a lot of effort, and a big team," said herpetologist Alejandro Arteaga, director of science for the research and ecotourism group Tropical Herping.
Still, the team wasn't going to let a few big rocks and some molten magma get in the way of their mission. After arriving at the Seymour Airport on Baltra, the herpetologists chartered a boat and set sail for the port village of Puerto Villamil.
The team then embarked on a grueling trek through the mountainous terrain of Isabela Island. Along the way, they traversed several of the island's most active volcanoes, dodging magma with each step they took.
Finally, after days of hiking, the group arrived at Wolf Volcano. They steadily scaled the steep slopes of the towering mountain, though when they reached the top, there were no pink land iguanas to be found.
Instead, the scientists found themselves face to face with several creatures: They were geckos, this they were certain of, yet something about them made the team feel like they were worth paying a little extra attention to.
After tracking down and snapping photos of the pink land iguana population, the team returned to collect tissue samples from the unusual geckos. These samples were then sent to Universidad San Francisco de Quito back in mainland Ecuador, where researchers there confirmed the herpetologists' inkling...
These geckos were all brand new species — three of them, to be exact. This brought the grand total of gecko species in the Galápagos up to 12, with 11 of them completely native to the islands.
The first new species was dubbed Phyllodactylus andysabini, a.k.a. Sabin's leaf-toed gecko, after Andrew Sabin, the philanthropist who'd funded the expedition. Along with the pink land iguana and the tortoise species Chelonoidis becki, this gecko is completely endemic to the Wolf Volcano area.
Next came the Simpson's leaf-toed gecko, Phyllodactylus simpsoni, which was actually discovered on an expedition back in 2014. The original discoverer, Omar Torres-Carvajal, failed to label the species at the time, so Arteaga and company decided to name the gecko after conservationist Nigel Simpson.
The third species Phyllodactylus maresi, or the the Mares leaf-toed gecko, was originally deemed a subspecies of Phyllodactylus galapagensis in 1973. However, advanced genetic testing revealed that the Mares was, in fact, its own unique species and was subsequently labeled as such.
The team's enthusiasm was short-lived, however, as they quickly realized that, like many other Galápagos species, these geckos were at risk of extinction. With the entire population contained to Isabela Island, one large lava flow could easily wipe them all out.
"When you combine this with the fact that there are still introduced predators in the area, especially cats and black rats," explained Arteaga, "it definitely qualifies as endangered."
With these three new species properly identified, herpetologists could devise tailor-made approaches to their conservation and protection. They studied all kinds of preservation efforts, like those on Philip Island, a small community just south of Melbourne, Australia.
Each year, Phillip Island makes a real splash with its Penguin Parade. Visitors eagerly line up to watch the adorable wildlife make trips to and from the shore. But the parades might just end soon — for good.
The aptly named little penguin is the smallest variety of penguin, with a weight of approximately two pounds. In the past, you couldn't look anywhere in Phillip Island without spotting a couple of them. But recently, their numbers were thinning.
Due to an influx of foxes and other predators, the helpless penguins found themselves hunted down at an extreme rate. On one gruesome day, predators killed 180 of the poor penguins! By 2015, conservationists could only find six penguins on the entire island.
Park Rangers on Phillip Island had a real problem on their hands. Aside from the tourism revenue that kept the reserve going, the near-extinction of the little penguins threatened the entire ecosystem.
Nobody was quite sure what to do. But then a colorful chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh stepped forward. He had a trick he used in his everyday work that he figured might just save the plummeting penguin population.
To keep his flock of chickens safe from any would-be hunters, Swampy invested in a few Maremma sheepdogs to prowl his fields. These born herders chased away predators while also moving the birds to safer locations when needed.
If the Maremmas could shield some chickens, he wondered, could they do the same for penguins? Phillip Island understood they had no other real option. They got to training some dogs as soon as they could.
Before long, Phillip Island set the dogs out on guard patrol. The Maremmas didn't even have handlers with them. A self-reliant breed, they alone covered the expanse of the island. The park rangers waited with bated breath.
Sure enough, the sheepdogs did the trick! Foxes and other predators fled to the mainland, and the little penguin community started bouncing back.
Soon, in fact, their numbers climbed back into the triple digits! The Maremma experiment was such a success that it inspired a family film called Oddball. However, another species threatened the struggling birds: mankind.
Manmade disasters pose possibly the biggest threat to endangered species all over the world. For the little penguins, recent oil spills off the Australian coast wreaked havoc to their habitat.
Fortunately, conservation groups stepped in to help clean up the animals and their homes. But one quick scrub couldn't wash away the entire problem. The oil spill can cause longer lasting-problems, like reducing the penguins' ability to retain body heat.
As luck would have it, a novel solution would come from these halls in Southwest Australia. But make no mistake, this was no laboratory or gifted school. The penguin savior would come from a nursing home.
Alfie Date was already remarkable, as he held the title of Australia's oldest man. Nevertheless, even at 109 years of age, he still had the energy to make a difference. Moved by the penguins' story, he pulled out some yarn and his knitting needles.
With no time to lose, Alfie started knitting up a storm. A stack of colorful garments piled up next to his chair. Once Alfie's hands couldn't make one more stitch, he called the nurses to ship his hard work off to Phillip Island.
Crazy as it sounds, Alfie knitted sweaters for the penguins — and it worked! The perfectly sized clothing kept the birds warm and improved their buoyancy in the water. Plus, they didn't look half bad.
Once other Australians got wind of Alfie's heroic craftsmanship, they began sending their own penguin sweaters to Phillip Island, with some really cool designs to boot. You could almost say that Alfie's sweater gambit worked a little too well.
Staff on Phillip Island became so overwhelmed with penguin clothing that they had to asked people to stop sending it over! The birds only needed the sweaters for a short while, and yet park rangers had enough to put on a whole fashion show!
However, the sweaters going viral raised a ton of awareness about the little penguins' plight. People all over the world, not just around Melbourne, took notice of just how important these birds were to the ecosystem.
Ever since, the penguins' numbers have continued their steady growth. Who ever thought a few dogs and some knitting could save an entire population from the brink of extinction?
Researchers in other parts of the world saw dwindling populations of another species. In the deep dark corners of the Bolivian rainforest, for instance, there live this frog with a wide brown body, big green eyes, and an orange chest holding an empty heart. He was alone. He had been for a very, very long time.
There, from the tropical freshwater marsh, he was captured by scientists who had never laid eyes on one of his kind before. To further study him, they brought the fat-bellied frog back to their labs.
Ever since that day, the frog had been living at the Cochabamba Natural History Museum where he was given the name "Romeo." The question for the lonely frog was this: would he find his one true love? Or would "love be a smoke made with the fume of sighs?"
See, at first, researchers and frog experts assumed that Romeo was the very last Sehuencas water frog remaining on Earth. After all, his habitat has been greatly affected by deforestation and climate change...
But both the researchers and Romeo refused to give up hope. Their new goal for the next decade was to find him a Juliet. If the two got along, he would no longer be lonely, and if they really got along, they might be able to repopulate the Sehuencas species.
For the scientists, boosting the frog population was a beneficial goal in more ways than one: they'd save another species from extinction, further study these little guys, and restore balance in the delicate ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest.
Thus, the biologists got to work; they searched endlessly throughout the forest and even created a profile for Romeo on Match.com. Still, for an entire decade, "one" remained the loneliest number.
Zoologist Teresa Camacho then led a frog-search expedition in December of 2018. She and her team would stick their hands in creeks and feel for water frogs since the creatures can't easily be spotted underwater.
"We were tired, wet and disappointed," said Camacho, who believes that contaminated waterways on top of all the other habitat changes have driven the Sehuencas water frog close to extinction. "Then I said, 'Let's do one more creek.'"
Suddenly, Camacho and her team heard a tiny splash and noticed some movement in the water. They reached for the creature right away but alas: it was an entirely different species of frog.
However, not all hope was lost. That frog jumped away, leading the team to a tiny waterfall. There, underneath the stream of a little crashing wave, researchers saw a brown frog with big green eyes and an orange belly.
Unfortunately, this frog would not be Romeo's partner in repopulating the species. While this little fella could've been great company to the museum loner, he was a male! Still, this meant there were more Sehuencas out there. There was hope to finding Romeo a Juliet.
The next day, the crew returned to the creek one more time and... bingo! They managed to catch four more frogs: two males and two females. While three of them were too young to reproduce, one female was exactly the right age. Now all they needed was some chemistry...
Although Romeo found no luck in online dating, this adult female could very well be the one. Could his life of isolation finally be over? It was a tough call because she had a completely opposite personality from Romeo's!
"Romeo is really calm and relaxed and doesn't move a whole lot," Camacho Badini told BBC. Juliet, she said, was "really energetic, she swims a lot and she eats a lot and sometimes she tries to escape."
On Valentine's Day of 2019, the two love frogs would be set up on their very first "date" in the hopes of procreating and saving their entire species. No pressure, though, right?
If their personalities weren't compatible, the looks could be all they needed. "She has beautiful eyes," Alcide d'Orbigny Museum Director Ricardo Céspedes said about Juliet, who was quarantined until lab tests come back.
Scientists needed to make sure she was free of the dangerous chytrid fungus — known to have killed entire frog populations — before she met Romeo. Otherwise, she could've done much more harm than good!
Romeo was actually quite shy, didn't swim much, and was "a little overweight" but that could change! "We'll have to provide some sort of current to get him a little more exercise," Camacho said.
If Romeo didn't get kissed and turned into a prince, there were always a few other solutions: the biologists could attempt in-vitro-fertilization or rely on the younger frogs to breed when they were ready.
The Bolivian Museum of Natural History has previously succeeded in preserving the rare Titicaca frog, so if anyone is up to saving the Sehuencas, it's these well-trained experts.
Now all there was left to do was wait for Valentine's Day and see whether the Montague-Capulet romance would bloom. At least for now, Romeo no longer has to live in solitude, and there's gonna be one less lonely frog.
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