Mount St. Hilary
From Transformers Wiki
Mount St. Hilary is famous for being the place where the Ark crashed on Earth... sometimes.
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Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
Mount St. Hilary was situated in the Cascades range of mountains, which ranged from Northern Oregon through to Washington, parallel to America's West Coast.[1]
Roughly four million years ago, the Transformers space cruiser, the Ark, crashed into the side of the dormant volcano in Oregon not far from Portland. It lay undisturbed until the volcano erupted again in 1984, The Transformers which was stop press news on the Daily Bugle front page on February 7.[2] The explosion reactivated the systems aboard the Ark, which promptly set about restoring the Autobots and Decepticons on board. The Transformers
Mount St. Hilary would serve as the headquarters of the Autobots for the next few years. At one point, Wheeljack installed a number of automated gun emplacements around the volcano. These were hidden inside the rock face, emerging through sliding panels as they were needed.
Under the leadership of Grimlock, the Autobots completed repairs on the Ark, Used Autobots and successfully relaunched it into space. Child's Play The hole left behind still contained a variety of discarded machinery and communications systems. These were later used by the Autobot Goldbug to send a distress call Toy Soldiers! that was eventually received by the Autobot Headmasters on Nebulos.
They answered the distress call and made their way to Earth followed by the Decepticons. Tracking the source of the signal, they arrived at Mount St. Hilary to find Spike Witwicky looking for his missing brother, Buster.
Not long after, the Decepticon Headmasters attacked and trapped Spike in the volcano. Scorponok caused molten lava to erupt from the cavern floor. Fortress Maximus’s Headmaster, Galen, attempted to save Spike by pushing him out of the path of a rock fall and died himself in the attempt. Trial by Fire!
Later a Firebug landed on Earth on one side of the volcano and an Autobot shuttlecraft landed on the other side the next morning. Firebug!
Transformers '84
Four million years ago, Optimus Prime crashed the Ark into Mount St. Hilary as part of a deliberate gambit, a suicide play that would remove the most influential players in the Great War from Cybertron. Transformers '84 issue 0 Shortly after the crash, the Decepticons Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust, who had not been aboard the Ark at the moment of its crash, discovered the starship buried in the side of a mountain, and battled AUNTIE's facsimile Autobots on its slopes until Grimlock arrived. Secrets & Lies #3
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
The Ark crashed to Earth, smashing into a volcano. There it rested until a volcanic eruption four million years later reactivated it and its inhabitants. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1
Tremors led the Autobots to uncover a cavern within the volcano containing fossilized dinosaur bones, leading to the creation of the Dinobots. S.O.S. Dinobots However, the volcano didn't erupt again until Megatron brought Cybertron into Earth's orbit, causing geological chaos. The activity in the volcano ceased when Ironhide bravely drove in and blasted rock debris from the crater rim, plugging the shaft. The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 At some point the Autobots installed an elevator up the interior of the volcano's main vent. Enter the Nightbird
This location served as the Autobots' headquarters until the construction of Autobot City. A short time after the defeat of Unicron, the volcano was smashed into a pile of loose shale by Trypticon. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga
Autobot Headquarters was located in Arizona. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 2
Micromaster
After a battle with the Decepticons, the Autobot Micromasters discovered ruins of Cybertronian origin at Mount St. Hilary, including a piece of metal with a Predacon faction symbol on it (though none of the Micromasters knew the symbol's significance). Sixtrain! Activate Red Mode!! The Autobots set up a headquarters at the base of the volcano. While excavating the ruins, they uncovered a stasis pod which emitted a strange radiation that brought forth a combiner team from an alternate dimension. The Menace of Landcross's Combining Formation!
The Battle for Planet Earth
Mount St. Hilary was part of the Arvins mountains range. Bumblebee to the Rescue Despite the Ark having been stuck into the side of it, the Autobots had no idea what a volcano looked like. Terror of Mount Sheelah
Beast Wars cartoon
"Camelot!"
"It's only a model."
"Sssh!"
The volcano's location was burned into the Golden Disk by Megatron. When his Predacon namesake arrived on prehistoric Earth, he discovered the mountain and blasted his way in. Though Megatron fully intended to complete his ancestor's instructions and slay the stasis locked Optimus Prime, he found himself unable to go through with the act, sealing up the cavern once again. The Agenda (Part 2)
A year later, as part of a contingency plan, Megatron baited Blackarachnia with information on the volcano, resulting in her and Silverbolt digging into Megatron's old tunnel and the Ark. Forced into a tactical corner, Megatron met Blackarachnia at the Ark and forced her to grant him entry into the ship where he fired on Optimus Prime, unleashing a timestorm centered on the volcano. The Agenda (Part III) After stabilising the Autobot leader, the Maximals installed the remains of their ship in the cavern, using it as their base. Optimal Situation
Megatron later tried to use a disruptor cannon to destroy the volcano only for his plan to quite literally blow up in his face. Go with the Flow
After Megatron located and reactivated the Nemesis, he used the warship's tractor beams to pull off chunks of the volcano, exposing the Ark's rear section. Nemesis Part 2
Transformers vs. The Terminator
The resting place of the Ark, Mount St. Hilary erupted in 1813 but had otherwise remained quiet until 1984, an event which saw not only the surrounding area evacuated but the passengers of the Ark reactivated. The first to be healed, Skywarp dragged his fellow Decepticons into the path of Teletraan-I's repair beams before they executed most of the stasis locked Autobots. Let loose on Earth, the Decepticons conquered it and brought about humanity's extinction by 2029. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two
To avoid this, Skynet sent back a single T-800 unit back to 1984 with the primary objective of preventing the volcano's eruption before destroying it. The time displacement device hadn't sent the unit back far enough, arriving too late to stop the eruption. Breaching the Ark, the T-800 prepared to enact its secondary objective, the destruction of the Cybertronians. Enemy of My Enemy Part One
Boldly throwing itself at the Decepticons, the T-800 failed to terminate any of them but its interference led to the Autobots surviving. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two Still committed to its mission but hopelessly outgunned, the T-800 agreed to work with the Autobots for access to their armory, placing Cybertronian explosives in and around the mountain. In a battle at Cyberdyne Systems, the unit detonated its pilfered bombs, destroying the mountain. Enemy of My Enemy Part Three
After defeating the Decepticons, the four surviving Autobots, and their four Decepticons prisoners, returned to Mount St. Hilary only to find it now a pool of magma. With no means of returning to Cybertron, the eight agreed to a truce, though Bombshell noted that some Autobots may have survived, being willing to burrow for survivors once the magma had cooled. Enemy of My Enemy Part Four
Knights of Unicron
The Mt. St. Hilary Amphitheater was the first venue for the Knights of Unicron on their 2014 "Till All Are One" tour. Knights of Unicron
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Mount St. Hilary was the site of the Autobots' first base on Earth. Much later, Strongarm and Fixit visited to check for any abandoned artifacts, and stopped the volcano from erupting due to an ill-advised scavenger hunt by a Decepticon and her Mini-Con partner. Strongarm's Big Score
Cyberverse cartoon
During the era of Pangaea, the Ark crash landed on Earth in what would become Mount St. Hilary. When humanity evolved, they classified the volcano as part of Ring of Fire. Bumblebee's group eventually deduced that the Ark was within the volcano, breaching it and finding the inert vessel, unaware that one of Shockwave's drones had followed them in. Awaken Sleeping Giants In an attempt to destroy the Ark, Shockwave activated a magnetic disruptor above the volcano, reigniting it. Before it erupted, Teletraan-X managed to activate the Ark's shields, sparing it. Following this, he repositioned the ship slightly, causing it jut out slightly from the volcano, before the Decepticon fleet arrived, bearing down on the mountain. Eruption
One of Earth's GroundBridges was located in one of Mount St. Hilary's caverns, very close to the Ark. The Visitor Spotted
Once the Autobots had seized the AllSpark, Hot Rod gave the order to leave Earth, the Ark's rapid launch causing Mount St. Hilary to erupt. Escape From Earth
Games
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Bumblebee couldn't remember if their spaceship crashed into Mount St. Hilary or Mount St. Helens. Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Toys
Transformers (2014)
- Dinobots Generation One 4-pack (Voyager, 2014)
- The inside box of the Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive "Dinobots Generation One 4-pack" that was first made available at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 can be unfolded to reveal a Pop-Up diorama of the Ark crashed in Mount St. Hilary. The back of the diorama shows Teletraan I, referred to as the "command center" in the packaging bio. The outside packaging credits Matthew Reinhart as the designer of the diorama.
Merchandise
- In 1984 Presto Magix released a transfer set called Trouble on Mount St. Hilary.
- In 1985 Mount St. Hilary appeared on the Action Cards trading cards from Milton Bradley.
Notes
- Mount St. Hilary seems clearly inspired by the real-world eruption of Washington's Mount St. Helens just a few years earlier and in the original treatment, it was going to be St. Helens the Ark was in.[3]
- The volcano is referred to as "Mount St. Helens" in the G1 Super-Size Coloring Activity Book.
- In the guidebook Beast Wars Universe, the volcano is referred as "Mount St. Helens".
- The location of the volcano is stated to be Oregon in most continuities. The Generation 1 cartoon does not give an explicit location.
- Eruptions and name aside, the Marvel Comics version is a much closer analogue to the dormant Mount Hood, which is in the state of Oregon, is only 50 miles from Portland (less than half the distance to St. Helens), and is a popular skiing destination, matching what's shown in issue #8. In issue #7, Ratchet has left the Ark on foot and wandered into Mount Hood National Forest while looking for a road, meaning Hood and St. Hilary must be in close proximity. Mount Hood even straddles the edge of Oregon's rain shadow, putting lush forests and dry deserts in close proximity, matching the terrain frequently shown in both comic and cartoon.
- In early scripts for the Generation 1 cartoon, the volcano was named Crater Mountain.
- Regardless of why "Hilary" was chosen as a stand-in for "Helens", there is a real-life St. Hilary.
Foreign names
- Mandarin: Shèng Hilary Shān (Taiwan,
聖 希 拉 蕊 山 Shèng Hsī-lā-juě Shān, "Mount St. Hilary"), Shèng Hilary Shān (China, 圣希拉 里山 Shèng Xīlālǐ Shān, "Mount St. Hilary")
