BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — After 45 years of operation, the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center west of Yellowstone National Park is set to be enlarged and its interpretive displays renewed beginning this summer.
"I think this whole thing is going to make for a much better facility for visitors and employees, and for taking care of long-term maintenance issues," said Bruce Crockett, engineering contract officer for the Northern Region of the Forest Service in Missoula.
The existing 3,600-square-foot building with a basement, which opened in 1967, serves as an interpretive site for the Aug. 17, 1959, earthquake that killed 28 people camping in the canyon. The 7.5-magnitude quake sheared tons of rock off the hillside opposite from where the center now stands, sending monstrous boulders crashing across the Madison River and up the opposite side of the canyon. With the river blocked off, Quake Lake was quickly formed and began flooding the river bottom.
The quake also tipped Hebgen Lake, just to the east of the slide, sloshing water over the dam as well as flooding lakeside cabins. At the time, the temblor was the second-largest to occur in the lower 48 states in the 20th century.
The visitor center, maintained and operated by the Gallatin National Forest, was built atop the debris from the landslide and was opened to the public in 1967. The expansion will add about 1,500 square feet to the existing round facility, including a 200-square-foot super-insulated room that will be heated through the winter when the rest of the building is closed. The room will be used to store any temperature-sensitive items on display.
The work will also make the entrance more obvious while installing a windbreak, in addition to re-siding the wooden and rock building. The parking lot will also be redesigned for better traffic flow and shrunk since much of it isn't used and requires maintenance. Berms and rock will be integrated into the back of the lot for a more natural look.
Inside, the plans call for all-LED lighting to be added to reduce energy costs. Later, a photovoltaic system would be added to further reduce energy expenditures.
The project will be let for bid later this month. The Forest Service is hoping work could begin this year and be finished by early next summer. The estimated cost of the project cannot be released until after a contract is awarded, Crockett said.
Because of the construction work, the visitor center will only be open through July 16. The center's hours are 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. No admission fee is being charged in this shortened season.
A $300,000 bid has already been awarded to Eagle Rock Timber Inc., of Idaho Falls, for work on new interpretive signs, reconstruction of a trail to make it handicap accessible and the creation of a 15-by-20-foot interactive 3-D model of the Madison River Canyon on which children can play. Signs will be replaced, taken down or added at 17 sites at the visitor center and in the canyon along Highway 287.
"It's a variety of elements," said Jane Ruchman, developed recreation program manager and forest landscape architect for the Gallatin National Forest. "Depending on how this dovetails with the building construction, that will determine whether they finish this fall or early next summer."