The 1959 Lake Hebgen Earthquake and its Effects on Yellowstone Park Geysers

Rebecca Hein
Sunday, September 14, 2025

Bears in the Old Faithful Lodge?1 And a college student, David Bittner, on fire watch on Mt. Holmes thrown from his bunk onto the floor? He’d been reporting tremors to his superiors, but they had paid no attention. Bittner knew they’d believe him this time.2

It was Aug. 17, 1959, and the Giantess Geyser in Yellowstone Park was erupting for an unprecedented time. Located across the river from Old Faithful, the Giantess usually erupted for 30 hours, but starting that day it went for 100 hours. Other springs—289 of them—erupted in geysers, 160 of which had never had geyser activity before, and cracks ruptured the surface.3

The edge of a lake whener a cabin tilts into the water, which rises to its roofline on one side
Grace Miller jumped out of her front door across a large 5-foot crevice, just before her home fell into Lake Hebgen. (National Forest Service)

The cause? A 7.5 magnitude earthquake, killing 28 people at Lake Hebgen in Montana, about 236 miles from Old Faithful. (The largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5).4

clouds of steam and jets of water erupt from a geyser basin
Normally erupting just once a day, Morning Geyser erupted every four hours the day of the earthquake. (National Park Service)

Other geysers in Yellowstone Park were also affected. The Morning Geyser in the lower Geyser Basin normally erupted once a day. After the earthquake, Morning erupted every four hours. A few geysers quit—Steady and Grand. But five months later, Grand began to sporadically erupt again.

Other geysers affected were Great Fountain, Daisy, Castle and Oblong. These erupted less often but nearly twice as frequently. For many years, these became ongoing changes.

Sapphire Pool, a previously dormant hot spring in the Biscuit Basin, began erupting more than 200 feet high, destroying the biscuit-like formations in the Basin. Steamboat, the world’s tallest geyser, located in Yellowstone’s Norris Geyser Basin, awoke from its 50-year dormancy when it erupted in 1961, less than three years after the 1959 earthquake.5

In the Old Faithful Inn, the fireplace collapsed, so guests rushed from the shaking building.6

The bears—probably black and/or brown bears—seemed to feel a need to be near people after the earthquake. They were completely non-threatening and left the Old Faithful Lodge after awhile.7

Editor's note: Special thanks to the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, whose support helped make the publication of this article possible.

Images Courtesy of the National Forest Service and National Park Service.

Resources

Footnotes

1. Williams, Edmund Jay. The Night of The Bear. Ricks College Department of Geology, New Perspectives 14, no. 1, April 1997, accessed May 11, 2025 at https://www.yellowstone.co/nightofthebear.htm.

2. Christopherson, Edmund. The Night the Mountain Fell: The Story of the Montana-Yellowstone Earthquake. Missoula, Montana: Earthquake Press, 1962

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Williams, Edmund Jay. The Night of The Bear. Ricks College Department of Geology, New Perspectives 14, no. 1, April 1997, accessed May 11, 2025 at https://www.yellowstone.co/nightofthebear.htm.