High School Friends Visit – Part 2…Continued…Mackay Earthquake

After leaving Bayhorse Ghost Town & Custer Ghost Town, we started making our way back home.  We decided to go visit the sight where the Mackay Earthquake (7.3 on the moment magnitude scale and 6.9 on the Richter scale) took place.  The earthquake took place on October 28, 1983, shortly after 8 a.m.  Not too long after that, I visited the sight but I haven’t been there since.  The place where we took the following photos has changed quite a bit since seeing it for my first time.  They now have a nice road where you can drive right up to the place that shows the fault line and what happened to the land that day.  The also have a small, fenced in place with several plaques that describe the events that took place.

At the sight, there were lots of these leaf-less, small pink flowers blooming all around.  They were so pretty and I thought they would be pretty growing around my yard.  When I got home, I found them on the internet and as far as I can tell, they are called Bitterroot, the state flower of Montana.

Now, it was homeward bound.  As we were driving along, we notice a huge cloud of smoke down the valley.  I stated that it looked like it was in the Mackay area.  When we got closer, my suspicions were confirmed.  We were told that it came from a controlled burn that had flared up.

The time had finally arrived and it was time for my friends to head back to their homes in Utah.  I will miss my friends as we always enjoy our time together.  The following is the last picture that was taken.  Well, I shouldn’t say last picture because it took us many photos to get one that was semi-good enough to post.  My friend (in pink) would set the timer on her camera then race to where we (my other friend and I) were standing and get in the frame before the photo was taken.  In all the pictures but this one, my friend setting the camera had her eyes shut.  In this one, all eyes were open but there was some serious laughing going on and for that, I can’t tell you the reason……too funny!