Quake Lake was formed after a landslide on Aug. 17, 1959. Today trees trapped when the water rose are still seen on June 21,2022.
WEST YELLOWSTONE – With gas costing more than $5 a gallon, travelers may want to get as much bang for their buck as they possibly can. While waiting for the even/odd turn to go to the Yellowstone National Park there is another impressive geological site outside of the park worth the time of travelers.
Less than 30 miles northwest of West Yellowstone on HWY 287 is Quake Lake, a lake caused by a 7.2 earthquake on Aug. 17, 1959, at Hebgen Lake. It was the largest earthquake recorded in the Intermountain West.
Some of the dead pine trees still rise from the water giving the place an eerie feel to the lake. The pine trees in the water have diminished in number over the years.
Jonathan De Santiago, a college student doing an internship at the Quake Lake Visitor Center, said the quake caused a massive landslide down river about seven miles.
“There was about 80 million tons of rocks, earth and trees that slid down the face of a mountain blocking the Madison River on Aug. 17, 1959,” he said. “The slide killed 28 people, 19 people were buried alive, five drowned, two died in the Bozeman Hospital and two died when a boulder came down on the parents of three who were in a tent.”
The three children survived. The visitor center has many survivors’ accounts where people can read about the tragic events of that day 63 yeas ago. There were some 250 people that had to be rescued by helicopter because the highway in and out of the area was damaged so bad. It was reported the wind caused by the landslide was over 100 miles an hour and blew the clothes off some people.
“The dam at Hebgen Lake had a concrete spillway built in 1915, it controlled the flow of the Madison River until the earthquake,” the Michigan Native said. “The earthquake caused three cracks to appear in the spillway.”
The earthquake centered at Hebgen Lake caused the water to drop 29 feet to the north exposing the lakebed at the south side of the lake. The earthquake also caused the lake to tilt causing a tsunami-like wave that caught a lot of people off guard and washed their cabins into the lake.
“Grace Miller is a legend. She ran a lodge at the edge of the lake,” De Santiago said. “During the quake she kicked her door open and found there was a five-foot drop between the stoop and the ground. Miller and her dog got to higher ground in the dark and saved themselves.”
Miller was in her seventies and managed to escape with her dog as her house dropped into the waters. For years, the roof of her home was exposed and the rest of it submerged in the cool waters of the lake.
“There are other buildings in the water with the roofs exposed and some of the wreckage of cabins on the far side of the lake that were damaged by the waves,” he said. “We have seen more people come visit when they closed Yellowstone.”
When the Yellowstone National Park was open, De Santiago said there were about 250 people a day. When the park temporarily closed because of flooding, they saw about 400 visitors a day.
“We call Quake Lake the best kept secret in Montana,” he said. “One of the great places in Montana on the side of the lesser-known landmarks.”
The visitor center has information panels with photograph displays and a movie that tells, in detail, what happened that day in August of 1959, in a remote part of Montana. The face of the mountain that slid is still visible and the residue from the slide across the mountain is still there with trails for walking across the debris.
The earthquake is known for knocking off the timing of Old Faithful Geyser and causing other geysers to crop up in Yellowstone.
The massive landslide is a display of what Mother Nature can do in just a moment of time.