Which Boston-area hill was falsely reported erupting in a 1980 TV prank?

Great Blue Hill was the Boston-area hill falsely reported to be erupting in a 1980 television prank.

On April 1, 1980, Boston station WNAC-TV ended its 6 p.m. news broadcast with a fake bulletin claiming that Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts, had erupted. The report described lava and ash reaching nearby homes and used dramatic footage from the real Mount St. Helens eruption. It also inserted edited remarks attributed to President Jimmy Carter and Massachusetts Governor Edward J. King.

The report caused genuine alarm. Milton residents began leaving the area, police received more than 100 calls, and the state Civil Defense office was flooded with questions about evacuation. WNAC-TV apologized during its late newscast, but the incident had already become a notorious example of an April Fools’ prank going too far.

Great Blue Hill is not a volcano. It is a 635-foot hill in the Blue Hills Reservation and the highest point in Norfolk County and the Greater Boston area. The prank is sometimes misremembered as involving Bunker Hill or Beacon Hill because those are more familiar Boston landmarks.