![]() The issue was the control of that far-away gold producing territory, either by the South, who had the majority of citizens, or by the North, whose land it was. The gold produced in Virginia City was strategic to the Civil War, which was being fought while the new city was being founded. Virginia City began as Varina, in Idaho Territory, truly a Rebel town in Union territory during the Civil War. That History begins on 16 June 1863 with the registration of the town site of the new settlement as “Verona”, their spelling of Varina, the wife of the President of the Confederate States of America. The history of Virginia City, Montana is important to the entire United States because strategic events were worked out in Virginia City during the Civil War. A very sad event indeed.The history of Virginia City, Montana is important to the State of Montana and to its residents because Virginia City was the birthplace of Montana and the cradle of much Montana and United States History. It seems that there are almost always a few people in the area, and that means a loss of life. An earthquake that happens in a rural area seems to make us think that it was simple a change of the landscape, but that is rarely the case. I think that while I probably didn’t know about all those deaths, that I still felt the sadness of that place, because it is a place I have never forgotten. That was the story of the event, this one died, and that one lived. Myrtle Painter died of her injuries, while her 16 year old daughter Carole survived. Irene Bennett and her son Phil were saved, but her husband Purley and their three other children were killed. A couple, Edgar and Ethel Stryker were killed by a boulder that crushed them, while their three young sons, sleeping in a nearby tent, were unhurt. What had been the Madison River, was blocked by a massive landslide creating Earthquake Lake. I was impressed by the ability of an earthquake to change the face of the landscape around it. I remember feeling the enormity of the catastrophic event that took place that day a number of years earlier. Along with the loss of life, there was the damage to roads, making it even harder to bring help in to the people who were trapped, although I’m not sure it would have made much difference. That family was on vacation, and suddenly their lives were gone…over in an instant. What impresses me more now is the sadness of the loss. These days, I realize that being near someone’s grave, whether in a cemetery or a natural grave such as Earthquake Lake became, is still nothing more than a final resting place. I don’t recall whether I was told about the 28 people who died there, or the ones they never found, but I rather doubt it, because things like that tend to be something that sticks with me…even really bothering me when I was younger, because I almost felt like I was a trespasser on their graves. ![]() What I do remember, is the trip our family took when I was a child, that included Earthquake Lake. Still, I doubt I would have remembered it. ![]() I was only three years old when that quake occurred, so I wouldn’t remember it, nor am I aware that it was felt in Casper, Wyoming, where we live, although it might have been felt there too. The 7.5 magnitude earthquake was the second strongest quake in the lower 48 states in the 20th century, according to the United States Forest Service, killing 28 people, including five people in one Idaho Falls family who were entombed in the ensuing landslide, and are still there to this day. I read in the paper on Monday about the 57th anniversary of the AugHebgen Earthquake that created Earthquake Lake in Montana, just west of Yellowstone National Park. ![]()
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