Case file · Cryptid
Ape Cave, Mount St. Helens
A 4 km lava tube south of Mount St. Helens named after the 'Mount St. Helens Apes', a local group whose name recalled the 1924 Ape Canyon 'ape-men' story.
1951 CE · 46.11, -122.21 · status: explained
The account
Formed about 1,900 years ago, it is the longest continuous lava tube in the continental United States. Accounts of its discovery differ: a logger nearly drove a tractor into it in 1947, or logger Lawrence Johnson found it around 1951. A Boy Scout troop called the Mount St. Helens Apes explored it next and lent it their name. Rant Mullens, who said he and fellow foresters hoaxed the Ape Canyon incident, said his group also called themselves the St. Helens Apes.
The sceptical view
A natural lava tube; the name commemorates a story, not an animal.