A Little Bit of History Lesson in my Family!

Last night I had dinner with my mom and My Aunt Claudia and her husband Ralph. I am working really hard on my genealogy, and my mom set up the dinner to be able to pick her brain on names and events. My Aunt Claudia is a very detailed person. The coolest story I got last night was the family trip to Yellowstone in August of 1959.





The family decided to go camping in Yellowstone. They picked an area called Rock Creek Campground. They did their normal camping activities and then my mother's brother, Claude, got a fever and the family packed their stuff up and went to stay at my Mom's Aunt Ruth's house which was not too far away in Idaho. The night they left Yellowstone, an earthquake hit Yellowstone. Here are some details of that earthquake.

The earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and caused an 80 million ton landslide which dammed the Madison River. The landslide traveled down the south flank of Sheep Mountain, at an estimated 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), killing 28 people who were camping along the shores of Hebgen Lake and downstream along the Madison River. Upstream the faulting caused by the earthquake forced the waters of Hebgen Lake to shift violently. A seiche, a wave effect of both wind and water, crested over Hebgen Dam, causing cracks and erosion. The earthquake is the largest known to have struck the state of Montana in recorded history.




This is a picture from an ariel point of view on the landslide. The family went back to the camp ground where they had previously been and found large boulders where they had stayed. 28 people died and my mom and her family could have been part of those numbers had it not been for Claude.

They have dammed up the Madison river and now call the area Quake Lake. I would like to go to Yellowstone and visit this area just to see what it is like.