August 17 marked 65 years since the powerful, landscape-altering, Hebgen Lake Earthquake.
Yellowstone Public Radio’s Orlinda Worthington spoke with a Utah woman who shares her incredible story of survival and a premonition from her mother that would prove to be true.
“My dad had heard about a place called The Point that was in the Rock Creek Campground at the Madison River Canyon and he wanted to go and fish there,” Thon said.
In the summer of 1959, Anita Thon’s family took a trip from Utah to Yellowstone National Park. She was twelve years old at the time. They spent time visiting the hot pots and geysers. And it was there that Anita’s mother began to feel really uncomfortable.
“She would say to us ‘you know, it’s amazing with all these geysers and hot pots there’s not any more earthquakes happening.’ And she was just really uncomfortable the whole time we were there. Finally, she says I’ve had enough. We have to leave. My sisters and I feel like our mom had a premonition that something was going to happen to our family where we would not make it back home,” Thon said.
The family did leave Yellowstone and headed to what was then, Rock Creek Campground. Anita’s dad found a shady grove of pine trees to park their brand new trailer under right next to the Madison River.
“We went to sleep and about 11:37 I was awakened by our trailers swaying back and forth. I remember calling out to my dad asking him if he could make our dog Princess settle down because she was shaking the trailer, but my dad never answered me. And I thought that was really odd that, you know, it was like we were alone in the trailer with my sister Ann and I. I could hear this sound coming from outside, this roaring, deafening sound. It seemed like it was coming towards our trailer. My sister and I were being tossed around in our bed. And then suddenly, something did hit our trailer, and it blew the glass out and we pulled the covers over our head to prevent us from getting cut by the flying glass. Our trailer was coming apart. Things were spilling out of the cupboards. And then it was over. It just stopped. Everything stopped. The shaking stopped. And my sister and I were laying there and we were thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe that we're still alive. And so we just cautiously got up from our bed but we just kinda fell into the dark water. We were totally confused at what had just happened,” Thon said.
What had happened was a 7.3 magnitude earthquake sending a massive avalanche of rock, soil and trees racing down a wall of the Madison River Canyon at nearly 100 mph. It took less than one minute for 80 million tons of rock to block the river creating what is now called Earthquake Lake.
“We were both hysterically crying because we couldn't find our sister Carol. We couldn't find our mom and dad. We saw the strangest sight, a woman in a white robe, and she was sitting on something floating by us. And she said to us, stop crying, you'll be okay. And we're thinking, are you crazy? Look at what’s happening,” Thon said.
The twin sisters spotted their older sister Carol on a ridge and made their way to her. Their parents were nowhere in sight. Carol went off to look for them. She found their mother slumped on a rock.
“And, my mom called to her and said Carol, come to me. I’m hurt. Help me,” Thon said.
Carol and their mother walked toward a light they saw in the distance and found a station wagon parked on top of the ridge. The woman inside was a nurse.
“Which I think was a miracle because she basically saved my mom and dad that night,” Thon said.
Meanwhile, Anita’s father was pinned under a tree downstream and rescued by some fellow campers. Hours later, both parents, and others injured were airlifted by helicopter to the West Yellowstone airport, where the wounded were laid on hay bales waiting for an airplane to transport them to nearby hospitals.
“When I walked into that trailer and saw my mom and dad laying on a blood soaked mattress it looked like they had been butchered, and my mom called out, please do not let my children see me like this,” Thon said.
The children were ushered away. Anita’s mother later died of her injuries. Her dad was critically injured. Their physical wounds eventually heal. But the emotional scars from the trauma changed their lives forever.
“ Just the whole scenario of you know, why am I here? How did I live when other people died? You’re grateful you're alive and feel guilty you’re alive but you feel guilty you lived,” Thon said.
Anita’s first return to Hebgen Lake was on the 50 year anniversary of the earthquake. That was the first time she shared her story publicly.
“You just appreciate what you have and what you’ve been through and it just makes you realize how fragile life is,” Thon said.
She will be speaking there again on the 65th anniversary, August 17th.
In Billings, I’m Orlinda Worthington.
Thon has written three books on her experience surviving Montana’s largest and most deadly earthquake, including one on the family dog Princess, who disappeared after the quake. She traveled 60 miles away from the quake scene to Virginia City and was eventually reunited with the family.
Thon and her husband have two grown sons, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She still lives in Utah.
