7/27/2023 0 Comments Hot springs quake lakeThe Earthquake Lake Visitor Center is home to superbly designed interpretive displays, an indoor panoramic viewing room, and a working seismograph. The Earthquake Lake Visitor Center rests on the actual landslide, and provides a tremendous panoramic view of the mountain that collapsed on August 17,1959. Highway 287, the visitor center is about 27 miles north of West Yellowstone and 44 miles south of Ennis Montana. "Quake Lake", which is officially named Earthquake Lake, remains to this day, and is a constant reminder of what happened on that infamous night of August 17th,1959.Īt the location of this devastating landslide rests the National Forest Service's Earthquake Lake Visitor Center.īuilt in 1967, and newly remodeled in 2014, this extremely fascinating visitor center provides interpretive services for over 50,000 visitors each year. The Army Corps of Engineers immediately began digging a channel to allow the Madison River to once again flow, which took over a month to accomplish this project. Quake Lake.Īlong the north shore of Earthquake Lake, along Highway 287, you can still see the remnants of the forest that ended up being covered in water as the lake quickly filled. The earthquake triggered a disastrous collapse of a mountain a few miles downstream from the Hebgen Lake Dam, and this massive landslide instantly dammed the Madison River, creating what is now called Earthquake Lake, a.k.a. Thankfully the dam held.ĭavid's family was in Yellowstone Park that August, and finished their vacation just two days before the Hebgen Lake Earthquake hit.ĭavid's parents recalled that even though they were back in Central Montana, hundreds of miles away, the quake was so strong that they had to take the kids off their top bunk beds because there was so much shaking. One of David's childhood friends was living in Ennis when the quake hit, and he recalled hearing the loud "boom" and his parents grabbing him and his siblings and frantically running for higher ground in the darkness, along with the rest of the residents of Ennis. This gigantic landslide hit so fast that hurricane force winds were created that were strong enough to toss cars like toys.īecause there was great concern that the earthen-made Hebgen Lake Dam (built in 1914) was going to collapse due to the earthquake, the people living downstream along the Madison River, including the entire town of Ennis Montana, immediately evacuated their homes and fled to the high hills above the town. The loud "boom" created as this huge landslide hit the valley floor shook windows far beyond towns like Ennis Montana, which is 46 miles to the north. The most devastating damage occurred immediately downstream of Hebgen Lake, where 80 million tons of rock broke off a mountain and crashed into the Madison Valley, instantly wiping out a campground that was full of campers as they slept, killing all 21 campers. There are several campgrounds and resorts found throughout the area, and is truly an outdoor person's paradise. This beautiful lake provides great fishing, as well as any other water sport you can think of, such as water skiing, canoeing, kayaking and swimming. Today, Hebgen Lake is an extremely popular vacation destination, but there are still a few cabins still halfway under water to remind us of that horrifying night in 1959, even though most of the cabins are now long gone. The stories from the survivors of how they were awakened to a wall of water covering their cabin and how they escaped in total darkness sends shivers down anyone's spine. Cabins along the north shore with people sleeping in them were instantly covered in water, as well as large sections of the highway, as Hebgen Lake shifted it's shoreline. This 20 foot fault scarp can still be seen today, as it stretches for miles. The north shore of Hebgen Lake instantly rose 8 feet and the south shore dropped 8 feet as a huge area of earth instantly tilted as much as 20 feet. People felt this earthquake as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah and beyond.Įven though there was significant damage and loss of life in the neighboring states of Wyoming and Idaho, by far the majority of the damage occurred closest to the epicenter. ![]() The quake violently shook the area for over 40 seconds, causing many millions of dollars worth of damage and the loss of 28 lives. ![]() Known as the " Hebgen Lake Earthquake", the epicenter was located in the Madison Valley near Hebgen Lake, which is located about 15 miles north of West Yellowstone, Montana. ![]() At 11:37 pm on August 17, 1959, one of the strongest earthquakes in American history hit southwest Montana, causing significant damage and killing 28 people. The size of the quake was measured between 7.5 and 7.8 on the Richter scale, which is only rivaled by the "Good Friday Earthquake" in Alaska in 1964, which registered as a 9.2 magnitude quake.
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