Description: From Anchorage Daily News (1955): "Heavy volcanic ash today is blanketing the Cold Bay area, near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula.
"Ashes from 'Old Smoking Moses,' Mt. Shishaldin, the active volcano some fifty miles southwest of Cold Bay on Unimak Island. Shishaldin has been in a state of eruption for the past two weeks.
"Weather reports from Cold Bay advise that the ash fall is from Shishaldin rather than Mt. Pavlof which is located only 25 to 30 miles northeast from Cold Bay. Winds in the area have been recorded as being from the southwest instead of the northeast.
"The report was confirmed by the Anchorage weather bureau today.
"Last Sunday, a river of flaming lava poured down the steep slopes of 9,979-foot Shishaldin in what was termed a major eruption.
"Coast Guard officials at Cape Sarichef have reported Shishaldin in a state of 'intermittent eruption.'
"Fire and huge plumes of smoke were observed to belch from the cone all day Sunday."
A July 22, 1955 UP article reported: "Mount Shishaldin is continuing to blow its top following the largest eruption in the memory of the island's residents.
The entire top of the mountain 'seems to have exploded,' according to a report received today from the Cape Sarichef coast guard station * * *. Huge blots of lighting flashed over the volcano's fiery cone following the latest eruption, causing radio interference in the area, a coast guard official reported.
"Mount Shishaldin's top has been partially blown away, the commanding officer at Cape Sarichef reported. A new fissure has been ripped into the side of the peak and it is spewing a gusher of lava for a distance of several thousand feet."
An Associated Press article from July 23, 1955, states that Gordon Gay, Cold Bay agent for Reeve Aleutian Airways, estimated the "clouds of smoke, soot, and ash are rising in the air over Shishaldin to an estimated 50,000 feet."