The night the world shook: Remembering the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake

[Ptah]

The night the world shook: Remembering the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake
Part 1: Survivors tell their stories when a mountain slid into the Madison River Canyon

https://www.kbzk.com/news/the-night-the-world-shook-remembering-the-1959-hebgen-lake-earthquake

Quake Lake Mont. - This Saturday night, at 11:35 p.m., will mark the 60th anniversary of the largest earthquake ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains.

The massive 7.3 quake took 28 lives and changed the landscape just west of Yellowstone National Park along the Madison River.
The power of this earthquake was immense. The old riverbed of the Madison is now underneath the waters of Quake Lake. The area was filled in with 80 million tons of debris that came from a nearby mountain. The rocks, the size of houses, came down with the slide landing on the far side of the canyon, in just a matter of seconds.

“We don’t believe that earthquakes can get much larger in this region,” said Mike Stickney, Director of Earthquake Studies for Montana Tech in Butte.
Books and articles have been written about the tragedy. Most have something in common. They feature photos taken by John Owen, who was 15 at the time of the quake. He was in a vacation cabin with his family that night and still remembers being jolted awake.
“I was thrown off the couch onto the floor,” Owen said, recalling the fateful night.

Fearing the Hebgen Dam would burst after the quake, the owner of the resort where the Owen family was staying told his guests to flee to nearby high ground. “And before long there was just a stream of cars coming in,” Owen said.
250 people made their way to what was later named Refuge Point.

“Right about dawn, then Dad said, ‘Here take the camera, go take some pictures,’” Owen said.
The massive landslide pushed a wave of air in front of it at 100 miles an hour. It swept one man away, never to be found, and it ripped the clothing right off one survivor. “You know, it’s the human story to hear how some families were separated,” said Joanne Girvan, Director, Earthquake Lake Visitor Center . Stories like how three children survived but their parents were killed by a giant rock. A mother and one child who survived while her husband and three other children perished.

The night the world shook - Part II: Waves and tremors at Hebgen Lake threaten dam
Two survivors tell their stories of the 1959 earthquake that killed 28

https://www.kbzk.com/news/the-night-the-world-shook-part-ii-waves-and-tremors-at-hebgen-lake-threaten-dam

The night the world shook - III: '59 quake changed landscape, structures and more in Yellowstone
160 new geysers sprang to life in the park

https://www.kbzk.com/news/the-night-the-world-shook-iii-59-quake-changed-landscape-structures-and-more-in-yellowstone

The night the world shook: Quake ended a way of life in West Yellowstone
8-17-59: The town was at the peak of summer season

WEST YELLOWSTONE — Part 4: An end of an era, the beginning of a new chapter:

https://www.kbzk.com/news/the-night-the-world-shook-quake-ended-a-way-of-life-in-west-yellowstone

[2naSalit]

1. It's quite a story...

it tilted part of Yellowstone Lake inside the park, crumbled the grand fireplace in he dining hall of Old Faithful Inn and trapped park visitors for hours as there were boulders and slides on the roads. There's a short video about it with all the news clips and interviews with a timeline, there's a short book that goes with it.

If you go to the area, there are several places along the Madison River where you can see remnants of the old road and parts of cabins still lodged in the mud near Campfire Lodge.

The museum in West Yellowstone had an exhibit about it but the museum has changed a great deal so i don't know about that now, haven't been in for while.

ETA: And a whole bunch of people got buried under the pile of mountain, they say it was 80 million cubic tons of material, and it buried an entire campground... they're still there.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Thank you for the post on the Quake in Yellowstone...very informative. I recall when I ...

visited that a house was still embedded in the lake when we toured the quake area...probably already gone by now...

[2naSalit]

6. There are still a few remnants left of

about three cabins down Ghost Canyon (The dirt road to Refuge Point fishing access) on the far side of the river. Last time I was down there was about two years ago.

The Quake Lake Visitor Center has been upgraded in the past few years and it sits in the middle of the talus pile that the event left behind, pretty much where the campground used to be. The outflow channel of the lake is still about the same after all these years as well.

(I worked for the museum for a short time so I go to learn a lot about it during that time and living in the area for years, I had plenty of opportunity to talk to some of the elders who were there that night.)

[Ptah]

7. I'm glad to read of your experiences.

Thanks for sharing your memories and descriptions.

[2naSalit]

8. Thanks for posting about it.

A forgotten history for certain.

[caduceus111]

2. My dad was manning the parking lot at the Berkely Pit in Butte that night.

He said his first indication of the earthquake was all the keys jingling on the wall.

He looked out at the parking lot and it was like waves on the ocean. Cars going up and down.

I've been to the Quake Lake visitors center many times, and camped along the waters. It's fascinating what happened there, but terrible for the people that were shoreline on Hebgen Dam and the river that night.

Thank you for the beautiful memorial post.

[MontanaMama]

4. I've lived in MT most of my life

and never knew much of the info at the links in your OP. Thank you very much! There are survivors of this quake who were camping near the massive slide that are speaking tonight about their experience at the Quake Lake visitors center. Wish I could be there. Fascinating.

[Ptah]

5. I was eight years old and lived about 200 miles away.

I remember hearing about it.

[MontanaMama]

9. My husband is 58

and born and raised in Missoula. Obviously he wasn’t alive when the quake happened...but he’s an outdoorsman and was wide eyed when he read the story about the campground that was engulfed in the slide during the quake. Folks that camped in that place way back then were bad ass to be sure.