Big Sky Blog

> read the rest (click here) <

Since we lived about an hour’s drive from Yellowstone Park, we made it up to that area quite a bit. We didn’t go into the park itself very often — a couple of times in the winter (on snowmobiles, which is awesome) and a couple of times in the summer. Yellowstone was right in our backyard, so it wasn’t really a big deal for us. Sometimes we never realize how fortunate we are!

The trip from Ennis to West Yellowstone always took us past Earthquake Lake (known locally as Quake Lake) and Hebgen Lake.

Earthquake Lake is so named because on the night of August 17, 1959, one of the most powerful quakes in the lower 48 states shook the Hebgen Lake area, and created Earthquake Lake.

Most newspaper and magazine accounts refer to it as The Night the Mountain Fell.

The earthquake was (depending on which source you read) 7.3 to 7.8 on the Richter Scale. The violent shaking cause the side of a mountain to dislodge, and plunge into the Madison River and 400 feet up the opposite side of the valley. The force and air displacement from the plunge was enough to overturn cars in the area.

90 million tons of debris moved from one side of the valley to the other in an instant.

28 people lost their lives that night.

You can look at some photos and see for yourself the forces at work, but a mere photo doesn’t do justice to the sense of awe you feel when you are there on the ground.

On the opposite side of the mountain from the slide, there now stands a visitors center. Next to the center is a boulder as big as a house, with a plaque inscribed with the names of those who perished.

I’ve never actually taken the time to go in there, as I’ve heard a lot of the stories first hand.

Doc Losee tells the story of what happened in Ennis that night. No one knew the status of Hebgen Dam, and with the aftershocks, they didn’t know if it would hold. The town was set to evacuate, if need be. The warning sirens were tested, and people were ready to roll. As they learned later, if the dam had gone the water level of the Madison River would have only been raised 3 or 4 inches.

Dad graduated from EHS in 1959, so he was fresh out of school, and waiting to go into the Army. As I have heard, he and his buddies, under the guise of helpfulness, offered to evacuate perishables to high ground above town. Many people took them up on this offer, and while most of the contents of refrigerators made it to high ground — a great deal of beer did not. (I heard this story 2nd or 3rd hand, and haven’t verified it with Dad yet.)

While I have no memories of the quake itself, the area has been imprinted on me pretty firmly.

On a straight stretch of road next to Hebgen Lake, there was a fence adjacent to the old roadway. You could see how the earth had turned them from straight lines into zig-zags. The fence has long since been repaired, and the roadway grown over, but I can see it as if I were there.

I can picture my Grandfather standing in one of the scarps, where the ground fell, and trying to imagine how a chunk of earth could just drop 15 feet.

For some reason, though, the most poignant image to me is where old US 287 simply disappears into the south end of the lake. I don’t know why, but that imparted to me more about the rapid brutality of the quake than anything else could.

There was a road that had gone somewhere, but now it only led to the dark bottom of a lake that was conceived in tragedy and violence.

> all done <

Coffee
Convertible Table Coffee
Country Square Table Coffee Country
Table Coffee Custom
Table Coffee
Danish Modern Table Coffee Dark
Table Wood Coffee
Design Interior Square Table Coffee Design
Table Coffee Designer
Table Coffee Discount
Table Coffee Display
Table Coffee Drawer
Table Coffee
Drawers Square Table Coffee
Drawers Table Wood Coffee Drawers
Table Coffee Elephant
Table Coffee
End Marble Table Top Coffee
End Plan Table Table Wood Working Coffee End
Slate Table Top Coffee End Table
Set Coffee End
Table Table Coffee End
Table Tile Top Coffee End Table
Coffee Fish
Table Tank Coffee Free
Plan Table Coffee
Furniture Table Coffee
Glass Marble Table Coffee
Glass Metal Oak Table Coffee Glass
Metal Table Coffee
Glass Modern Table Coffee Glass
Oval Table Coffee
Glass Rectangular Table Coffee
Glass Round Table Top Coffee
Glass Round Table Wood Coffee Glass
Round Table Coffee Glass
Shelf Table Coffee Glass
Small Table Coffee
Glass Square Table Coffee Glass
Table Top Coffee Glass
Table Wood Coffee Glass
Table Coffee Granite
Table Coffee
Iron Table Wood Wrought Coffee Iron
Table Wood Coffee Iron
Table Wrought Coffee Iron
Table Coffee Japanese
Table Coffee
Large Square Table Coffee Large
Table Coffee
Leather Ottoman Round Table Coffee
Leather Ottoman Table Coffee Leather
Table Coffee Leg
Table Wood Coffee Leg Table
Coffee Lift
Table Top Coffee Lift
Table Coffee
Mahogany Square Table Coffee Mahogany
Table Coffee Maple
Table Coffee Marble
Table Top

Cobra Marine
Radio Cobra Microtalk
Radio Cobra
Modification Cb Radio Cobra Radio
Accessory Cobra Radio Mods
Cobra
Radio Cobra Radios Cobra Two Way
Radio Cobra Two Way
Radios Frs Gmrs Radio Frs
Gmrs Radios Gmrs 2 Way Radio
Gmrs 2 Way
Radios Gmrs Frs 2 Way
Radio Gmrs Frs 2 Way
Radios Gmrs Frs Two
Way Radio Gmrs Frs Two
Way Radios Gmrs Mobile
Radio Gmrs Radio
Frequencies Gmrs Radio
License Gmrs Radio
Review Gmrs Radio Gmrs
Radios Gmrs Two Way
Radio Gmrs Two Way
Radios Midland Gmrs
Radio Midland Gmrs
Radios Motorola Gmrs
Radio Motorola Gmrs
Radios Radio Cobra Sitemap The Part
Of A Cobra Cb Radio Uniden Gmrs 2
Way Radios