“Like we’d been in one world in the campground and somebody picked us up and put us on a different planet.” “In the morning it was like we were in a new world,” said Joanne Gartland, who was there that night and survived. It left the picturesque canyon a wasteland. “This is one of the largest landslides in North America.” “It’s also the geologic story,” said Girvin. A mother and one child who survived while her husband and three other children perished. Stories like how three children survived but their parents were killed by a giant rock. “You know, it’s the human story to hear how some families were separated,” said Joanne Girvan, Director, Earthquake Lake Visitor Center. It swept one man away, never to be found, and it ripped the clothing right off one survivor. The massive landslide pushed a wave of air in front of it at 100 miles an hour. “Right about dawn, then Dad said, ‘Here take the camera, go take some pictures,’” Owen said. “And before long there was just a stream of cars coming in,” Owen said.Ģ50 people made their way to what was later named Refuge Point.
“I was thrown off the couch onto the floor,” Owen said, recalling the fateful night.įearing 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. He was in a vacation cabin with his family that night and still remembers being jolted awake. They feature photos taken by John Owen, who was 15 at the time of the quake. “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.īooks and articles have been written about the tragedy.
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. The area was filled in with 80 million tons of debris that came from a nearby mountain. The old riverbed of the Madison is now underneath the waters of Quake Lake. The power of this earthquake was immense. The massive 7.3 quake took 28 lives and changed the landscape just west of Yellowstone National Park along the Madison River.
This Saturday night, at 11:35 p.m., will mark the 60th anniversary of the largest earthquake ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains.
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