Colesmith: Park Highlight

In 1838, the sleeping cinder volcano known as Mount Misteriosa erupted, causing massive destruction to the local wildlife, surrounding landscape, and the nearby town of Colesmith, leaving only the house of Uma Francine Oldman as the sole surviving building. The devastating explosion became the center of speculation among the surviving residents of Colesmith. Why was the Oldman house spared from being wiped out of existence? Many wondered if it was due to divine intervention or because of something supernatural.

Nearly two hundred years later, Mount Misteriosa's eruption puzzles scientists from around the world, leaving them asking why did the eruption destroy the town at all? Mount Misteriosa is a cinder cone which means the significant damage that it caused should never have happened. The explosion of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was very similar to the destructive forces behind the explosion of Mount Misteriosa. Usually, cinder cone volcanoes do not show the sheer amount of destruction as what happened in 1838.

Mt. St. Helens is a composite volcano which can have that amount of force but not Mount Misteriosa, so why was the town of Colesmith destroyed? The only thing that scientists seem to agree on is that what happened in 1838 should not have happened according to nature, but somehow did. If nature did not have a hand in the eruption, then what did?