How A Volcano Created The Modern Fitness World
The disaster that caused an exercise revolution
“…It was not until we had passed the nimbus of the great ash-cloud that Pelée was throwing out to sea that we began to distinguish features of recognizable land. The island in front of us was not a tropical paradise, but a withered piece of the earth that seemed to be just emerging from chaos. Everything was gray and brown, sunk behind a cloud which only the mind could penetrate; there was nothing that appealed restfully to the eye.”
— “Mont Pelée and the Tragedy of Martinique” by Angelo Heilprin
In early May 1902 one of the most devastating natural disasters in the Northern Hemisphere rocked the tranquil French island of Martinique, which was known as the “Paris of the West Indies." An eruption recorded on May 8th was so powerful it was reported to have lifted a 3 ton statue off its mount and threw it over 50 feet away.
A stream of molten mud ran down the volcano at incredible speed to the city of St. Pierre. Nearly 30,000 inhabitants were killed in the disaster. In his visit to the island after the eruption, Angelo Heilprin recounted the words of Martinique’s Vicar-General M. Parel.
“…Saint Pierre, in the morning throbbing with life, thronged with people, is no more. Its ruins…
