Quake Lake is the watery tomb of 28 campers.

By Bill Ryan

For the Journal

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been 55 years since Montana’s newest lake was formed. A landslide roared down on campers at Hebgen Lake and along the Madison River on the night of Aug. 17, 1959.

The 80-million tons of rock crashing into the canyon traveled at an estimated 100 miles an hour, leaving a giant pile of rubble almost 200 feet deep and 6 miles long. Some 28 campers died, and many more were injured.

The earthquake’s fury was felt by a group of Idaho State University students doing summer field work for the Bureau of Land Management. Lloyd Ferguson and Jack Taylor were camped at the Mud Lake Waterfowl Refuge near Hamer, and Bill Haight was in a trailer at Frenchman’s Cabin below Big Butte. Their narrative follows, as told by Jack Taylor:

“Lloyd Ferguson and I had turned in in anticipation of an early start the next morning in the cool of the day. We were sleeping on wobbly bunk beds in a small, unbraced BLM trailer. When the ground first began moving, Ferguson, swaying from the upper bunk, started dreaming about being back in the Navy aboard ship in a storm. I was reminded of my cruise on a troop ship on the North Atlantic in Winter.

“Stumbling to the door, we stepped outside to find the ground still shaking, the water in the ex-Army water trailer sloshing back and forth, and the air full of ducks and geese squawking and quacking and generally making a roar of noise. I don’t remember how long the quake lasted, but it was enough to retard their ability to go right back to sleep.

“Our guess that it had to be an earthquake turned out to be correct, as radio contact with the Idaho Falls BLM office confirmed it. A morning trip into the town of Mud Lake reinforced this conclusion; groceries from the store’s shelves were scattered over the floor.”

Ground motion was subtle enough that another B.L.M. worker, Bill Haight, did not feel anything, but coyotes sensed something that the humans did not.

Pocatello physician Corwin Groom’s family had a cabin on Hebgen Lake, but they had no beach. The earthquake tilted the entire lake and left the Grooms with a fine expanse of sand.

Not only were 28 people killed, but many more were injured. They received treatment in the nearest city, Bozeman, Montana. The 7.5 Richter Scale quake and landslide dammed the Madison River, creating Quake Lake. The area has since become popular with campers and fishermen.