National Park After Dark - The Devastating Yellowstone Earthquake

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Today we follow the stories of three families as they struggle to survive the largest earthquake ever recorded in the Yellowstone area. The quake killed 29 people and changed the landscape forever.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your first order.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code 50npad for 50% off plus free shipping.Lume Deodorant:  New customers GET $5 OFF a Lume Starter Pack with code NPAD.Miracle Made: Use our link and code NPAD to save over 40% and get 3 free towels.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night And you've had enough of shopping from your couch Done hoping it looks anything like the picture When you tear open that envelope It's time for a little in-person spring treat It's time for a trip to Ross

Work your magic When you pack your bags for your next adventure Your goal is to always be prepared Pack the bear spray Your sunscreen, the right shoes Make sure you have enough water For the activity you're planning to do We've all sent that text

If I disappear, this is where I'm going today. You detail your trip and when you'll be back. That way, if you're not back, they'll know to send someone to find you. The most prepared will do everything right. Check in with the park service, map your route, sign the logs at the trailheads. Maybe you even go the extra mile and take a wilderness first aid course. While these things are helpful and important, sometimes nature has something planned that you could never prepare for. As we know, Mother Nature rules all.

Welcome to National Park after dark. Is it natural disaster time? Sure is. It is that time again. We haven't done, oh, I guess you did the Spark Ranger episode and you could argue that that's not a natural disaster, but natural phenomenon. It's a natural phenomenon, yeah, a repeated one. A repeated one. That poor guy. I know. I know. Poor Roy. Well, are we, um, okay, is it a, um, is it a tsunami? What? Is it

going to be a tsunami? Um, not really. There's water involved. And I guess it's kind of, it's not a tsunami. There's flooding. So we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the 1959 earthquake that happened in Yellowstone. And for this episode, I've actually detailed it to go around and follow the accounts of three families who are camping outside of Yellowstone National Park on August 17, 1959 during this devastating earthquake that changed the landscape forever, and it killed at least 28 people. And I found these people's stories inside the book, the 1959 Yellowstone earthquake by Larry Morris. And there's definitely water involved. There's flooding involved because it did happen in a canyon and rock beds and river. And it just, there's water,

but I wouldn't call it a tsunami. I didn't know where we were, like what we were doing. So I just picked a natural disaster out of my hat. They're like tsunami. Sunami for $500. So wrong. Okay. Well, Yellowstone, once again, my favorite park.

So we're back. Kind of sort of. We're right outside the park, but it's the Yellowstone area. It's the Yellowstone ecosystem area. So we're technically there. And all the people who were going to talk about in the story, were visiting Yellowstone National Park. Perfect.

Yeah. I guess we don't really have too much to say besides. Let's get into this story. Great. It had been a warm and busy summer in 1959 within Yellowstone National Park. There were over 3.2 million people who traveled from all over the country that year to see the world's first National Park, a park that had been established that less than 100 years before then in 1872.

Throughout the warmer months, families packed up their campers, children and dogs to venture into the park and witness for themselves the dormant volcanic landscape that is home to more geysers and hot springs than any other place on the planet. Parents brought their children to see the amazing wildlife where many kids experienced seeing their first bison, grizzlies, elk, and moose. At the time, it was a highlight to drive into the park with a car filled with food and plan to feed the black bears from your snacks and your hand, which we talked about with tooth and claw in a previous episode. So you guys are interested in hearing more about that history. It's a wildestine. It's a wild wild one. Yeah. I mean, people really brought their children to play with black bears and grizzlies.

Play with wild black bears. Yeah, from their car. There's just so much wrong, but like, it is pretty cute. It's pretty cute. Yellowstone is pretty cool bag, but I'm just kidding. Yeah, what happened? What happened? You yellow storm? It's fucking sucks now. You don't even let you pet the bears. They actually put you in jail for that kind of stuff now. Yeah. Yeah. They really went downhill. Yeah, they did. So zero out of ten stars for Yellowstone National Park. Yeah, I guess just drive by it, you know. Nothing to see or do. Nothing to see.

If you can't pet the bears or feed the wildlife, then why are we even going to the amusement park Yellowstone? Right. Okay. I can't. Okay. Well, come August that year, Yellowstone had no sign of slowing down with thousands of visitors entering the park every day. while some camped or found lodging within the park, many others ventured to campgrounds in public lands just outside its borders to set up their tents and park their RVs in the adjacent

Custer Gallatin National Forest and surrounding areas. The Bennett family, Irene and Pudd, along with their four children, drove from Idaho to visit the park with their children's dreams of seeing bears. It was the beginning of their two-week vacation on August 17, 1959, when they arrived in the Madison River Canyon. an area just outside of the west entrance of Yellowstone. The river extends from northwest Wyoming into Montana with sweeping mountain views, meadows, and amazing cliff sides.

The family had tried to grab a camping spot in the nearby Rock Creek campground, but when it was full, they ventured a little further downstream to a beautiful meadow where they parked at the end of a row of seven other families who had also set up camp there. They settled in, eating a snack, and decided because it was such a beautiful evening, they would not sleep inside their tents that night. Instead, they laid their tents in the ground and then their sleeping bags on top with plans to experience the unmatched stargazing this part of the country had to offer.

They started a fire and made steak and potatoes and roasted marshmallows under the light of a full moon. The painter family from Ogden, Utah, had been able to secure a spot at the nearby Rock Creek campground. Ray and Myrtle, who were in their 40s at the time, brought their three daughters, Carol, who was 16 years old and their twins, Anne and Anita, who had just had their 12th birthday to camp for the first time and their newly purchased 24-foot camper equipped with beds, a kitchen, and bathroom. They also brought with them their beloved Black Lab, Princess. They parked at this established campground with several other families in sites nearby. While most of the painter family were excited for the

vacation, Myrtle was not. She was overcome with a feeling of doom, with fear for her family's safety. When they left their home, she insisted it was clean in case something happened to them and their family members had to enter the home, which reminded me of you. Yeah. Yes. It's me and Myrtle. We just know. Yeah. That's what I do.

Every trip we take, I leave my house. I mean, obviously, because I have, I guess, like, pet sitters come for the boys when I'm gone. But the underlying cause. Yeah. Like, I just need everything in its place. I'm like, okay, if I just, you know, check out while I'm away. and people are going through my things. You want them to remember you as neat and tidy.

That and like, I don't know, just, I don't know, just keep my weird shit away. Yeah, I don't do that. People would come into my house and they'd be like, wow, she's a disaster. And I think about it sometimes. I'm like, if someone went through this right now, sorry. Yeah, oh well. It's like, I'm dead. What do I care?

Yeah. Yeah, what do I care? But Myrtle, she had like this really bad feeling and just like you, but you do it every time. I hope you don't feel like you're going to die every time we go on vacation. But not every time. Just a sneaking suspicion sometimes. Just sometimes, you know. I do feel that way when I go on planes.

I'm like, well, this is it. Okay, so you do feel that way every time we go somewhere. Yeah, just for the plane, though. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. What I was going to say is, like, pretty depressing. So maybe I won't.

I will say this is a very depressing episode. So if the people listening, you wanted like a sunshiny, like, rescue story and stuff, this is not it. This is a devastating disaster that happened in Yellowstone. Okay. Well, since we're on theme, I guess, like, I have a, like, when sometimes I feel that way on planes, not always. I wouldn't say it's as much as you. But there's sometimes that there's, like, sounds happening that feel like they shouldn't be happening. And it's not even really the turbulence that gets me.

it's the sounds and creaking and vibrations. I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? Because all it takes is like one faulty bolt or like panel. You know what I mean. It's just so anyway. So when I think of that, I'm like, it would be pretty quick, I feel like. And like if I were to go down and it would be tragic for like my family and stuff. Like I love you guys, but you know that.

Like for me though, I'd be like, finally. just like okay it's happening i don't know i just like i feel like i would be pretty accepting in the actual moment yeah but who knows i don't know i just feel like as of right now 2023 daniel feels that way i would be sad for everyone yeah left behind i'm sorry but i don't know what else to say told you it's depressing i i would have the opposite i would Maybe I would accept it as it was happening, but like I feel like I would kind of feel like, God, I fought so hard in my life to like be alive and here we are. And this is, and I bought it, and I bought a ticket. I voluntarily got on this. And I was flying when we flew back from Alaska,

we hit some turbulence and I was in the exit row looking out at the wing. And I was watching the wing flap around and it was like moving. And I think that's normal. But when I, you're sitting there watching it while the plane is shaking and turbulence. It doesn't feel normal. I think that plane's going to fall off. And this will be it. Yeah. I feel like the only thing of like a plane crash.

Here we are talking about plane crashes again. It comes up every time. Every time. The panic of like everyone around you for those few minutes I think would be like terrifying. Even if like in my mind I'm like, well, this is it. Like acceptance, whatever. like the vibe in the room is not that. It's scary.

And it's really scary and terrifying. So I'm not saying that I would just be like sitting there smiling. I would obviously be terrified. But I think deep down at like a soul level, I would be okay. And I think it's like we have opposite things. Like you did fight so hard to be alive. And that would be awful. And for me, I'm like anxious.

Like I'm not seeking out experiences that I'm putting my life on the line. actually quite opposite. I'm like a scarity cat. But like I would feel like, oh, like, I wonder what's next. Like, now I'll get to find out. You have a different relationship with death than I do, though, because you've always been curious about it. It's not that I'm not curious about it, but I'm putting it off as long as possible. Which I think is very normal. That's the normal response. So, yeah, I don't, I'm not surprised. But anyway, okay. Anyway, back to Myrtle. She has a really, She has a doom feeling that she's not safe. Her family's not safe.

So she cleans her entire house in preparation for a family to have to be there. And not only does she do that, but she also double-checked her insurance policy before leaving, making sure that if she did die, that her children and her family members would be her beneficiaries. So she was like very, very concerned about this trip. That day, August 17, 1959, the family had spent the day in the park, but Myrtle rushed them out after seeing the geysers and was quoted saying, let's get out of here before the whole place blows up. So she was nervous in the park.

She was nervous before it. And she was just kind of waiting for something to happen. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, Elle, every year after. the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. On a ridge between the developed Rock Creek Campground and Beartooth Highway, a scenic byway that eventually leads into Yellowstone National Park, the Green family set up a large tent for the three of them to camp in. Ray and Mildred, who went by the nickname Tudy, had brought their nine-year-old son and planned to vacation in the park.

The family had traveled from Billings, Montana, where Tutie had been a nurse for almost 10 years. That evening, each family settled into their campsites while they laughed together, ate, and talked about the adventures that were to come on their vacation. It was an exceptionally beautiful evening. The weather was warm, with very little wind, clear skies, and a full moon that was so bright, it illuminated the landscape and allowed them to see even after dark. The Bennett family lay atop their tents, falling asleep under the moon and stars. The painter family settled into their cozy new RV, all except their 16-year-old daughter, Carol, and their dog princess.

Ray and Myrtle wanted Princess to sleep in the car, so Carol brought her blankets inside and slept there with her. As her family fell asleep, Myrtle took advantage of the moonlight to go for a quiet stroll out to the river to wash her hair. Ray Green, Tudy, and their son, Steve settled in for the night and their oversized 18-foot tent huddled closely together before they all fell asleep. A calm, quiet, and beautiful night, no one knew the destruction and devastation that was about to hit. The Greens had only been asleep for a few moments when they were shaken awake by the ground moving beneath them and what sounded like the roar of a train, only a hundred times louder. Then, in an instant, a tree came barreling down on their tent, missing their son, Steve, by only mere inches and collapsing their tent.

Tudy unzipped the portion she could, and in horror saw a mass of water rocked. and trees rushing below them down the canyon. Tudy yelled to her family to run to the car, but when they turned the engine on to drive away, they discovered that their car was stuck on part of the same tree that had fallen on their tent. They got out of the car and grabbed a lantern to assess the situation. Soon after, they heard screams for help. They didn't know it at the time, but at exactly 11.57 p.m. mountain time on Monday, on Monday, August 17th, 1959, they were hit with a magnitude 6.3-3-1.

shock, which was followed only a couple seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. On that night, there were 250 people camped out in the Madison River Canyon. And you said this was August 17th? Yes, 1959. Did you plan for this to come out the same week of the anniversary? I noticed it when I, when I was looking at the schedule. This doesn't come out the same day, but it's the same week. So it is anniversary. Interesting. And I wanted to talk about a little bit of the Richter scale and how things are measured on that scale so people can really understand the gravity of how devastating this earthquake is. The Richter magnitude scale is the most common form of measurement for earthquakes. It's used to rate the magnitude of an earthquake, which is the amount

of energy released during an earthquake. While it doesn't measure quake damage because that is entirely dependent on outside factors, such as where the epicenter is, the terrain, depth, and population at the site, you know, if you have a huge earthquake and no one's there, you're going to have a lot less damage and devastation. But it does give us a relative idea of the amount of damage that they can potentially cause by the strength of them. The Richter scale is measured on a zero through nine scale. This scale is based on a 10 logarithmic scale, which means that each order of magnitude is 10 times more intensive than the last one. For example, a level two earthquake is 10 times more intensive than a level one. And a level six earthquake is 10 times greater than a level five.

Now, to give you an idea of the strength of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the Yellowstone area that day, a level two on the Richter scale feels like the equivalent of 600 kilograms of dynamite exploding and is the smallest earthquake that you can feel. So a level two would be, I think I experienced one one time where it's just like you feel a slight shake. And it's like, oh, what was that? And that's it. Like you have to double think about it. You're like, what was that?

It's like, did I just feel something? Yeah. Or like, and you might not even notice it, but it is noticeable. A level seven quake on the Richter scale is equivalent to 20 billion kilograms of dynamite and creates enough energy to heat New York City for an entire year. Oh my God. This size quake can be detected all over the world and has potential to cover. serious damage. And the one that happened here today that we're talking about was a 7.5. So it's a little bit

stronger than a level 7. While there's no limit on earthquake magnitudes, the largest ones recorded have been slightly over 9 with the most recent in Japan in 2011. And we all remember the tsunamis and things that happened over there. So just to put into perspective, a 7.5 is a massive earthquake. Irene and Pud Bennett were sleeping soundly under the stars with their four children when they were all awoken by an incredibly loud rumble from the earth. Pud jumped up in confusion, yelling and asking what was happening in one moment, and then in the next, he was caught in a windstorm of rock, water, and debris, and was being carried away. He grabbed onto a sapling and hung on with his life while he watched their family

car rip away in the wreckage. The force knocked Irene unconscious, catapulting her across the river in a mass confusion of trees and boulders. The intensity ripped all of her clothing off her body. When she finally came to several minutes later, she was laying face down on the riverbank, trapped under a heavy pine tree that had landed on top of her. Her mouth, nose, and ears were filled with a dusty substance, making it difficult to call out to her family.

She had excruciating pains in her neck as she tried to move and her face was swollen. Debris had bruised her face badly and something had punctured through her lips. After taking a moment, she used her hand to dig herself out from under the tree. She was shivering from the cold water and tried to cover herself in leaves so she wasn't as exposed with no clothing on, but it was completely useless. She called out louder to her family, but still had no response. Her husband and her children were nowhere in sight. 16-year-old Carol Painter, who had been sleeping in her car with her dog princess,

awoke to the car violently shaking and princess barking uncontrollably. Her first thought was that a bear was trying to get into the car, but then she noticed the incredible roar of what sounded like a train but was much louder. A moment later, the car was hit with a massive wave of water, slamming it into a tree and tilting it on its side. Water quickly filled up the car to her neck before she was able to get out and climb over the back of the truck to more shallow waters. Princess was still in the car barking. As Carol looked around her, she saw her mom slumped against a pile of rock and tree debris. Her mother, Myrtle, had been down by the river to wash her hair when the earthquake hit. Now she was on the ground, severely injured by the impact of debris crashing into her.

She was struggling to breathe with one collapsed lung and her left arm was almost completely severed from the elbow. Myrtle, who had the premonition something terrible was going to happen to her family, was right. And now she was calling out to her daughter, Carol, for help. According to one report that was listed in the book that I used for this episode, the 1959 Yellowstone earthquake by Larry Morris, when the earthquake hit, the strong shaking lasted less than a minute. It sent an entire mountainside crashing down at 100 miles per hour on the lower end of Rock Creek campground. The slide flowed from south to north, falling more than 1,000 feet, and pushing winds of nearly hurricane force in front of it. The landside slammed into the Madison

River, slapping the river from its bed, and hurling 30-foot waves upstream and downstream. So I guess kind of a tsunami. I mean, if not in the way that I was originally asking. But it's just mass devastation on a scale that your mind can't even really, even despite all these descriptions and measures, it's really difficult to actually envision that, especially envision yourself there, your family there. And this is so interesting that you're talking. about Myrtle with all these premonitions because I've heard of this story briefly. And it was like two,

maybe two or three months ago. On my favorite murder, they have minisodes where they do listener emails. And they're all over the map, like any subject. Sure. And one listener wrote in about, and I'm probably getting like this detail wrong, but it's like one of her family members or like someone she knew or her family was close with or I'm pretty sure it was one of her relatives, but she was there at the campground that night. During this earthquake. During this earthquake or right before and had woke everyone up and was like, we need to get the fuck out of here right now because something really, really bad is about to happen. And she just like felt it in her gut. And she ripped her whole family away from there and they all survived. And she got out of it like got. It was before the earthquake actually hit,

but they just like got up. They were camping there that night. Like, maybe like an hour or two before they were gone. Yeah. Wow. Follow your intuition. So at first I was thinking, like, is that Myrtle that that person was talking about? But now that you say that she was injured and they actually stayed there the night, it's a totally separate person. Yeah.

Well, there's 250 people. And even this book that I was reading, I highly recommended if people are interested in this story more because I picked three families in this story just to make it less confusing for everyone listening. Because if I'm talking about all of them, it's going to be hard to follow. but the book goes into several families and their experiences and several rescuers and they kind of beep up around to a lot of different people that were here and there were over 250 people who had this experience so I'm not surprised that I mean I'm surprised that someone has like a story like that that where they felt so strongly that they left but right yeah just like that the two people and I'm pretty sure it was a woman as well that this person writing in was was

referencing, but yeah, that two women had extremely strong feelings. Crazy. Because how often, I mean, people camp every day. I mean, we were just out camping for weeks and, you know, and people, we just fall asleep and go to bed and plan to get up in the morning like a normal day. Yeah. And maybe we've had like anxieties from time to time, not in Alaska, but, well, sometimes in Alaska, I was like, I really hope. Like I was sleeping next, you know, we slept with our bear spray near our heads and all that. But, like, you know, it's a different feeling of like, I really hope something bad doesn't happen. Or like, I'm in a place where something could happen.

Potentially. Potentially. But this is completely different. Well, this is like kind of how I said in the intro. This is something you can't really prepare for. Right. Especially with no warning. It just came.

And once you're in it, I mean, no one's prepared for an earthquake of this magnitude to be outside in devastation like this. And there's a lot of families who did find themselves here. and there's a lot of survival stories and also just devastating stories of loss. And this story is definitely going to be a combination of the two. Okay. Carol, who had now run to her mother, was holding her injured arm

and helping her walk up the hill to higher ground. At the top, they found the green family whose car was stuck from the fallen tree. Carol begged them for help showing her mother's arm. Just as they arrived, more people affected congregated to the area. Tudy, who was a nurse, and had brought a small amount of supplies with her, including some bandages and aspirin,

grabbed her bandages and bandaged Myrtle's arm, which was now gushing with blood. Another bystander grabbed their sleeping bag and let Myrtle lie down on top of it. It wasn't long before more injured people arrived and Tootie gathered whatever she could to help, bandaging people with sheets, towels, and whatever else she could find. Without a second thought, Tudy had stepped forward to help and along with her husband, they did what they could. and others with lesser injuries helped Tudy in any way that they could as well. Many of the injuries of the fellow campers were severe. People were arriving at their spot with mangled arms and legs.

Many were suffering from severe shock and internal bleeding. Campers told stories of others still stuck in the debris, so Tudy's husband, Ray, and other men went down to their locations. They found families with severe injuries and carried them out using mattresses from RVs as stretchers. They heard stories from them of others stuck in screaming the water for help, but it was impossible to get to them, and eventually the water became too high and those people drowned. In their search for survivors, they found Ray Painter, Murdell's husband,

on the ground with his clothing ripped off, screaming with a boulder crushing his leg. Men ran to him quickly and removed that boulder. When Ray had heard the thundering booms from the earthquake, he had stepped out of their RV to check on what it was when he was launched about 50 feet from a massive wave into some trees. He had heard his twins, Anna and Anita, screaming, but could do nothing as the boulder crushed his leg. When he was freed from the rock, he ran to the trailer to find that it had almost been fully submerged in water and was snapped in half. His daughters were nowhere in sight. He climbed up the ridge to where people were being helped and found Myrtle and Carol. Along with them were Anita and Anna. Carol had seen them from above searching and diving into the debris and fuel-filled

water around looking for their parents when she called them up. The two of them were relatively uninjured. The family was reunited now, but Ray was severely bleeding. Tudy tied a tourniquet around his leg to try and slow it down. Meanwhile, on a different end of the canyon, up by Hebgin Lake, there were more people struggling to survive the earthquake. Hebgen Lake is a man-made lake created by a dam and serves as a popular camping and fishing spot near West Yellowstone. A 64-year-old man, Frank Martin, had been in the area for camping and fishing when the earthquake hit. He was uninjured, so he took his station wagon and drove the roads he could to pick up any injured people and get them out.

However, the rock slide from the earthquake had blocked the only way out of the canyon, trapping everyone in it inside. Another registered nurse, Francis Martin, who happened to be camping the same day, set up a medical station at Refuge Point, a trailhead marker on the side of the road that leads up to Hebgen Lake. Here, people were suffering from severe injuries, some with severed limbs and others bleeding out. When the earthquake hit, it caused a huge avalanche of rock, soil, and trees, and formed a barrier that blocked the gorge and stopped the flow of the Madison River. And now, the water was visibly rising. When Tudy tried to leave the canyon, she too found it blocked and made an aid station at higher ground

in the nearby meadow at Refuge Point. But in a different spot than Francis. Men built fires, tore sheets for bandages and made food for the people gathered there. So now basically we have two nurses who are working at separate sites away from each other trying to help. And also, the earthquake just hit. And when I was reading it, there were small aftershocks that were happening. So still the earth was shaking. And now the water from the river is slowly rising further and further.

So they're trapped in this area. And now they're concerned that the water is eventually going to get to them. So scary. Between the two stations, they had about 15 critically injured people with no way to communicate, because remember this is 1959, there's no cell phones or internet or anything like that. So with no way to communicate or escape the canyon, Tudy and Francis worked throughout the night as the only medical professionals. But ironically, neither of them knew of each other that night. So they're working alone, both of them separately, but nearby. Throughout the night, the region experienced smaller aftershocks, which contained.

continued to shake the earth. Irene Bennett, whose clothing had been ripped off and had been stuck under a tree, was across the river with it slowly rising and she had no way out. She sat there screaming for her family with no response from them or from anyone else. She spent the rest of that night praying to survive until the morning. Meanwhile, West Yellowstone had experienced significant damage from the quake as well. The glass of the buildings in town were shattered, some had fallen, and the roads were unpassable and destroyed in many areas.

On top of that, all phone lines were down. Many visitors were trying to leave the area with fear of another quake or significant aftershock and got in their cars, but everyone leaving West Yellowstone heading north found destroyed roads and caused massive traffic jams. One man who had a lake house on the edge of Hebgen Lake was awoken during the earthquake to find that his side of the lake had no water. He assumed that the dam had broken and he rushed into town over almost impassable roads to warn everyone that the dam had broken and the town would soon be flooded.

He was able to find a radio station that was working to put out the word that the dam had broken and sound the alarm in town, which had families rushing out their doors. But he was wrong. The dam hadn't broken. The reason he saw no water was because of the small tsunami of giant waves the earthquake had created that had only temporarily removed the water from his area. Although he had good intentions and his idea was reasonable because he thought the town was going to flood, this led directly to difficulties in the rescue operations for the people trapped in Madison Canyon.

When officials realized what happened, they initially believed that there was no way to get to the canyon safely because it was flooded and it delayed their rescue attempts. It wasn't until 4 a.m. over four hours after the earthquake that a plane flew over Matt Madison River Canyon to assess the damage from an aerial view. This was the first time an outsider from the canyon saw the devastation, but because of difficulty in radio communications, they weren't able to get the word out fast. It wasn't until 6 a.m. when another plane flew over the area

that the first official report came over the radio, and the pilot said, Slide area 43 miles south of Ennis. White sign on top of the dam reading SOS. Okay. Road has gone into the lake on the roadside. Mountain has gone into the lake on the opposite side. Cracks six to eight feet wide across the road. Slide is estimated to be half mile long and 300 to 500 feet deep.

Water is rising very fast. About 50 cars stranded in the area, estimated 150 to 200 people. The only way out is by helicopter. And now this is six hours after the earthquake. So these people who are like bleeding have severe. injuries. They're being treated by two nurses and all they really have are like some makeshift bandages and some Tylenol for six hours. Right. Like you don't bring your whole like they weren't working. No. You know. They have IVs set up and like things like that. They're just working with

whatever they have. And all of these people now have been stuck there for six hours. And finally, the sun is just starting to come up. Highway crews, telephone companies and rescue teams were already in pursuit to help. Highway crews had orders to bring out machinery to clear ways in the roads as quickly as possible to the canyon. Telephone companies were working on getting communications back up and the Forest Service was in route to hatch out a plan and smoke jumpers had been notified to help. While smokejumbers are specially trained wildland firefighters who are trained to jump from helicopters and planes and parachute into fires, they are also trained as emergency medical technicians. For this mission, it was clear they needed people who could enter the zone to facilitate

medical care, but also to bring supplies to people while they figured out a way to rescue everyone. For this reason, smoke jumpers were called in because they were the guys who could jump in. The Forest Service also recruited doctors to drop in to help victims and Air Force planes and helicopters to take critical patients out of the zones. They were in contact with the Red Cross and local organizations to begin the process of the massive rescue they were about to undergo. When the planes flew over the canyon, people had hoped for their survival. They screamed and waved up their arms at the planes. Thanks to the nurses, Tudy and Francis, everyone who's in their care had survived that night.

Irene had also survived the night alone and had found another person while she was crawling looking for help. Some ranchers who lived nearby and had almost been killed by boulders in the quake themselves, but were uninjured, found both of them and brought them both blankets and water. Irene begged for them to find her children and her husband. But within a few moments, the two men found her husband pud, deceased nearby in the debris. By this time, mid-morning following the quake, they had started to get out medical personnel to the area. Dr. Lucy was the first there, not by a rescue team, but a pilot who had volunteered to bring him to the area to start medical treatment.

He was able to begin to tend to Irene. Again, she begged them to find her children. Irene and the person she was with were the first people to be removed from the scene and were brought to the hospital at 10 a.m. So 10 hours after the earthquake. Dr. Bales and a registered nurse Jane Winton also made their way into the canyon. A pilot agreed to fly them to Hebgen Lake and land as close as he could to the survivors, but this left them on the other side of the lake, where they needed to take a boat and cross by the dam. On their journey over, they noted a massive crack in the dam, but despite that, they continued going, with fears that it could break at any moment. When they crossed, Tudy was there waiting for them. She had arranged for their 15 most critically injured patients to be transferred to the dam for an easier rescue out. When Dr. Bales and Jane arrived, they found people with nearly severed limbs, crushed chest, deep lacerations, head contusions, broken bones, and a woman with a broken back, and several people in severe shock.

The doctor did note, however, how impressed he was and how well bandaged and managed each person was by Tudy, despite the lack of medical equipment and only access for Tylenol for their pain. So he kind of got there and was like, wow, Tudy, you've done a really good job. He expected to find people screaming and upset and just like a whole mess. And he got there and people were relatively quiet, calm, and just waiting for rescue. And it was because Tudy had been there taking care of them. Yeah, she stabilized them. the best that she could. Yeah. I just can't imagine Tylenol as a pain reliever for a severed limb, you know. I know. I was like, here you go. I hope this does something, you know, but she did the

best that she could. Yeah. And when the doctor and this other registered nurse came, they had brought actual medical supplies. So these people who had sheets for bandages and stuff like that, they began bandaging and they began administering medications that. could actually help with the pain. However, their plan to use the boat crossing as they had gotten there to get these people out was immediately they realized wasn't going to happen. These patients were not stable enough to withstand a boat crossing and Dr. Bales actually needed to go back and coordinated a helicopter rescue that would take them back to West Yellowstone where they could then be transferred by plane to Bozeman, Montana. Francis Donnegan, the other nurse who had been camping,

also still had many survivors she was caring for at Refuge Point as well. By 10.30 a.m., a U.S. Forest Service plane carrying a rescue team, including smoke jumpers, entered the area. It wasn't long before the jumpers were on the ground with provisions for survivors. They brought medical supplies, fresh water, and food. The smoke jumpers job was to administer first aid and give supplies, but also to get the campers to move to higher ground. Because remember, the water is rising quickly, and they're in places that are not going to be safe for long. So these smoke jumpers kind of came in and was like, hey, we got a hike.

We got a hike higher. By 1130 a.m., a helicopter from Utah's Air Force Base arrived. They brought in a helicopter specifically designed for high altitude rescues. Their mission was to pick up some of the most critical. Among these was Myrtle and Ray Painter. They had both survived the night, but were severely injured, especially Myrtle, and they needed immediate medical attention. First, they lifted Myrtle onto a medium.

makeshift stretcher and put her into the helicopter. Then Ray, following two other critically injured, Myrtle's vitals were checked, she was secured into the aircraft, an IV was placed, and she immediately received plasma for the severe loss of blood. Several minutes later, they took off for the hospital. The highway crews were still hard at work, creating a new dirt road to evacuate people out on. They worked tirelessly and were able to have it open the same evening. The painter's children, Carol, Anne, and Anita received a ride to Bozeman where their parents had been transported. Tudy Green and her husband left the area by helicopter at 5.30 p.m. on August 18th. Francis, the other nurse, didn't leave until later and continued to tend to patients before she left.

Tudy is just doing the most. She's like the hero of the story. Yeah, absolutely. She does so much. And later she is recognized for all her work that she does. Oh, good. That night, Irene Bennett received the devastating news that two of her children's bodies were recovered. She waited in the hospital, still hopeful that her daughter Susan would be found alive. However, the following afternoon, they found her deceased as well.

Irene lost her husband and all three of her children in the quake. The following days were met with relief and tragedy for many families as they awaited news from search and rescue about finding their loved ones. Many were found alive and many were not. On Thursday, August 20th, Myrtle Painters succumbed to her injuries at the Bozeman Hospital. Her husband, Ray, survived and eventually returned back to Ogden with their three daughters. Princess, the Painter's Black Lab, was thought to have perished in the quake after she was never found. However, two weeks later, she was found alive in Virginia City, Montana after she had wandered away from the site and she was eventually reunited with her family. family. Wow. That is absolutely amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. I don't know how she got out of the car,

you know, and... Well, there's just so many levels to that. It's like survived the initial quake and devastation, somehow got out of the vehicle and survived the greater Yellowstone ecosystem for two weeks on her own. Yeah. Like that is incredible. The predators, the disaster, everything. And she survives and I'm like, I can't, I can't tell the story where the dog dies. So I had to I had to add that, like, I don't know of any other dogs in the park. This was the only story I found of a dog. But, like, I can't tell this story if she doesn't survive. So she does survive and she is reunited with her family.

Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief right now. I feel like half the people when I said them, they're like, I'm going to turn off the episode if this dog doesn't survive. Yeah, the second you mentioned a Black Lab, they're like, up, here we go. Here we go. I'm not listening. I'll never know. Well, taking like a much sadder side note about Irene, her story, I mean, that significant of a loss, just losing your entire family in one swoop. My algorithm is obviously very death-centered and grief-centered.

And I really should look up his name. But I always get videos of him doing, he's now, like, I wouldn't say it's a motivational speaker, but he speaks about his experience. with death and grief and stuff like that. And he's young. He's like in his 30s and he lost almost his entire family in a huge big car pile up on the highway. Like a bunch of people died. I mean, when the police called him to tell him that his family was involved in a multi-car pile-up, there was like 22 people or something that died.

And they said that there was only one survivor. And he was going through all of this like mental list because in the car or in the vehicles that were driving was his wife, several of his kids, his brother and his nephew. Oh, that's awful. And it was, he was just in his mind like, oh, my God. Like who is it? You know, like, is it a stranger? Is it my one of my family members or is my whole family dead?

And it ended up being like his, I want to say it was like his three-year-old son survived. but he had two other kids, his wife, his brother, and his nephew all died. That's awful. And it was just like, and it's kind of recent, like, within the last, like, a couple of years. And he posts a lot about it and he does different talks and things like that about the accident and his experience after and putting his life back together and things like that. And it's just, like, when you hear about loss, a lot of times, it's singular. You know, like you lose a spouse or a partner or a sibling or a parent.

or a parent. And you can't even really fathom that because it's such an immense whole. And then to lose literally your whole family at once like Irene did. Yeah. It's just like you really can't even imagine what that's like. And the fact that she, for days, she was just sitting there holding out hope. And even after she found out her husband died, she's like, okay, where are my children? Then two of her children died.

And she's like, okay, like, where is my daughter where like maybe she's, she had maybe she's alive and then just like it's just like blow after blow after blow and then to find out your whole family and for a camping I mean you're just out for vacation it's supposed to be like a lovely time making memories right and to have something like this happen it's just it's devastating yeah it's awful it's just it's beyond even words yeah an estimated 37 million cubic yards of rock crashed over the river the day of the quake the total death toll is reported to have been 28 people. Although several years later, the remains of Ernest Bruffy, a solo climber who died during

the quake was found, bringing the toll to 29. So he had been out hiking and he was, I think he was labeled as missing because they didn't think he was like in the same area. And then they finally found him and he was the 29th person to be confirmed. The landscape changed from the rock side that day. The area that was once part of the Madison River, today has been reached. named Quake Lake. The earthquake formed a lake measuring five miles or eight kilometers long, a third of a mile wide, and 190 feet, 57.9 meters in depth. There was over $11 million

in damages to the forest and highways. In 1967, the earthquake lake visitor center was open and serves as an educational center on earthquakes and plate tectonics. They have movies and talks discussing the 1959 earthquake and the center has panoramic views. of where the slide happened and the new lake that was formed. The visitor center also houses a boulder from the site as a memorial with the names of 28 victims from that day. And it's still a highly visited area today. I mean, anyone can go check it out and go see.

And they do do a lot of talks there. And you can see where it was once a river. There's just a massive quake lake canal. I mean, it kind of reminds me a little bit of Mount St. Helens and how the, you that eruption and the slide that ensued just totally changed the landscape. And, like, you know, you can go and visit these places where, you know, people's homes are, like, buried under, you know, and it's just a completely different area visually now. And you just think of all the people who lost their lives.

Oh, I did want to say, I looked it up while you were finishing. His name is Mason Sawyer. Okay. So if anyone wants to look at his page, he has like over 15,000 followers on Instagram. He has a podcast and he does do different public speaking engagements. So I don't know, just if anyone is interested in that. But yeah, man, what a story. Yeah.

What a story. It just takes you by such surprise. Like there is really nothing you can do. It's just everyone was out enjoying their time in Yellowstone, you know. And there are things. I mean, we talk about being prepared all the time and making sure you have your water and a bear spray and whatever. But sometimes there really are just things that happen in the out of the outdoors.

doors that are out of our control and you can't you can't prepare for well next time we're in the area i would really like to next time like as 20205 is looking really good yeah it's looking promising i would really like to go there and and visit the memorial and see the site dedicated to it and all that because i feel like a lot of the talks that people go to and like a lot of the focus is on like the geothermal aspects of Yellowstone and, you know, like. The scientific parts of it. Right. And while this is still scientific, like they're doing talks about plate tectonics and

things like that and that obviously co-mingles with, you know, that results in earthquakes. Sure. And, you know, Yellowstone is just a hotbed of things like that. But anyways. No, I think it would be really interesting to visit. And I'd be curious to know if other people listening have visit there before. And like I said at the beginning of this episode, this is three. three families that I chose of their stories that kind of intertwined and they were in this

in similar areas that I chose from this book. But there are so many different stories because there were so many people from that day. And there's so many different accounts. And there's lots of people on the other end of it who are the rescue people who are facilitating this. And there's a lot more to it. So if people are interested, I mean, the book that I used for most of my research is the 1959 Yellowstone Earthquake by Larry Morris. But there are a ton of books from a lot of different perspectives. And I'm sure if you went to the visitor center there, they're going to have even more stories.

Right. So it's definitely interesting. And it's eye-opening. And it just kind of makes you feel like you just never know what's going to happen. Yeah. There's not really like a positive anything to add this on. Like I feel bad. Princess.

Princess. Oh. Princess. Yeah. Princess. Yeah. reunited with her family. Okay, great.

Okay, let's add that. And someone actually, someone actually wrote a book about it. About Princess? Yeah, but I think it's from Princess's point of view and like what she was doing for the two weeks. It's definitely like a novel. It's kind of like my Smokey the Bear book where it's like a novel from Smokey's perspective of his life surviving the Wildfire. Someone wrote a book from Princess's perspective.

And that's all I know. I don't know who wrote it. I haven't read it. But someone did write a book. That is curious. How do they know? I don't know. I think that it's just like them guessing what happened during the two weeks that she was gone.

I don't know. But it exists. Interesting. It exists. That's all I know. Great. Well, I'm sorry, but my book roster is full. I will not be adding that to my life.

All right. Well, glad to know that Princess made it. And thanks for sharing. Yeah. Well, that's it. That was depressing. And we hope you have a great Monday or whenever you're listening to this episode. I'm sorry for ruining your day. We'll see you next week. Enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPADPodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show.

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