The Memorial Boulder, a remnant of the earthquake, has a plaque engraved with the names of all 28 people who died during the event. The center’s observatory features movies and talks that regale the audience with stories of the earthquake. Here, visitors will find interpretive displays on earthquakes, plate tectonics and a functional seismograph, in addition to the a stunning panoramic view of the mountain that fell. Today, tourists to the area can stop by the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center, which is situated 27 miles north of West Yellowstone on US Highway 287, to experience the horror Smith and Owen recall. Quake Lake Visitor Center Exterior of Quake Lake Visitor Center Gloria Wadzinski Exhibit inside the Quake Lake Visitor Center Gloria Wadzinski Those looking to cast a line will have the most success with dry fly fishing as the many timbers below the surface make float tube fishing frustrating. Nowadays, fishermen enjoy scouring the 190-foot depths for cutthroat and brown trout, which are stocked yearly. The lake the quake created covers an area five miles long and 1/3 of a mile wide. Large portions of nearby forests were destroyed. Roads cracked and shifted, and three of the five reinforced bridges located near the quake’s center were severely damaged. The summer houses stationed along Hebgen Lake sustained shifted foundations, crumbled chimneys and burst pipelines. Overall, massive devastation wreaked havoc on much of the area. After only three weeks the damned river created a lake more than 170 feet deep. The fallen material formed a wall blocking the Madison River’s flow. “It was just way louder than thunder - just one of the loudest noises I’ve ever heard in my life.” “The shaking and the noise was horrific,” John Owen, then 15, told the Post. It took less than one minute for the 80 million tons of rock to slam into the narrow canyon, blocking the river and creating Earthquake Lake. The event caused a massive avalanche of rock, soil and trees (an estimated 28-33 million cubic meters of material), which descended down from the Madison River Canyon’s south wall at nearly 100 mph. At the time, it was the second worst earthquake to occur in the lower 48 states. The United States Geological Survey calls the earthquake the worst on record in Montana (records date back to 1869). Smith’s recollections aren’t exaggerated. “You could actually see the ground open up.” Joann Smith, who was 11 years old at the time of the disaster, recalled the horror of the event for a 50th anniversary article for the Denver Post published Aug. Comparably, recent small quakes in Yellowstone (also called an “earthquake swarm”) registered at 0.6 to 3.6 on the Richter scale. The quake caused massive damage, including 28 fatalities and a considerable $11 million in repairs to highways and timbers. An earthquake and resulting landslide killed 28 people and formed Quake Lake.
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