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Frank Slide

Coordinates: 49°35′28″N 114°23′43″W / 49.59111°N 114.39528°W / 49.59111; -114.39528 (Frank Slide)
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Frank Slide
The town of Frank and Turtle Mountain on April 30, 1903, one day after the slide
DateApril 29, 1903 (1903-04-29)
Time4:10 AM MST
LocationFrank, Alberta
Coordinates49°35′28″N 114°23′43″W / 49.59111°N 114.39528°W / 49.59111; -114.39528
Deaths70–90+
WebsiteFrank Slide Interpretive Centre

Frank Slide was a rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank, Alberta, on the morning of April 29, 1903. It occurred at 4:10 AM when over 82 million tonnes of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain in 90 seconds, obliterating the eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway line and the coal mine. Between 70 and 90 of the town's residents were killed, most of whom remain buried. Multiple factors led to the slide: Turtle Mountain is in a consistent state of instability, leading area native tribes to call it "the mountain that moves". Coal mining may have increased the instability, as did a wet winter and late spring thaw.

The railway was repaired within three weeks and the mine quickly reopened. The town's population peaked at 1,000 shortly after the disaster, however part of the town closest to the mountain was forced to relocate in 1911 amid fears that another slide was possible. The population dwindled after the mine closed permanently in 1917. The community is now part of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass and has a population around 200. The site of the disaster, which remains virtually unchanged since the slide, is now a popular tourist destination. It has been designated a provincial historic site of Alberta and is home to an interpretive centre that receives over 100,000 visitors annually

Background

The town of Frank was founded in the southwestern corner of the District of Alberta in 1901. It was located near the base of Turtle Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass, where coal had been discovered one year earlier.[1] It was named after Henry Frank, who along with Samuel Gebo, owned the Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company which operated the mine that the town was founded to support.[2] The pair celebrated the founding of the town on September 10, 1901, with a gala opening that featured speeches from territorial leaders, sporting events, a dinner and tours of the mine and planned layout for the community. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) ran special trains that brought over 1400 people from neighbouring communities to celebrate the event.[2] By April 1903, the permanent population had reached 600,[3] and featured a two-storey school and four hotels.[4]

Turtle Mountain stands immediately north of Frank. Its rock face covers deposits of limestone and coal.[5] It is known to be unstable; The Blackfoot and Kutenai peoples called it "The Mountain that Moves" and refused to camp in its vicinity.[5] In the weeks leading up to the disaster, miners occasionally felt rumblings from within while the pressures created by the shifting mountain sometimes caused the timbers used to support the mine shafts to crack and splinter.[6]

Rockslide

Frank Slide area in 2007

In the early morning hours of April 29, 1903, a freight train pulled out of the mine and slowly made its way towards the townsite when the crew heard a deafening rumble behind them. Instinctively, the engineer set the throttle to full speed ahead and sped his train to safety across the bridge over the Crowsnest River.[7] At 4:10 AM, 30 million cubic metres (82 million tonnes) of limestone rock broke off the peak of Turtle Mountain. The mass of rock was 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) wide, 425 metres (1,394 ft) high and 150 metres (490 ft) deep.[8] It took only 90 seconds for the mass of rock – some boulders the size of a house – to flow down into the valley and up the opposing hillside.[6]

Initial reports on the disaster speculated that Frank had been "nearly wiped out" by the mountain's collapse and it was thought the rockslide was triggered by an earthquake, volcanic eruption or explosion within the mine.[9] The town proper survived, but the slide buried buildings on the eastern outskirts of Frank.[3] Seven cottages were destroyed, as was several businesses, the cemetery, a 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) stretch of the road and rail tracks, and all of the mine's buildings.[10]

Approximately 100 people lived in the path of destruction, located between the CPR tracks and the Crowsnest River.[11] The actual death toll is uncertain, though estimates typically range between 70[10] and 90.[3] It is possible that the toll may have been higher. As many as 50 transients had camped at the base of the mountain while looking for work. It was thought by some residents that they had left Frank shortly before the slide, though there is no way to be certain.[6] Most of the victims remain entombed beneath the rocks; only 12 bodies were recovered in the immediate aftermath.[10] The skeletons of six additional victims were unearthed in 1924 by crews building a new road through the slide.[12]

It was feared that the men within the mountain had been buried with no hope of survival.[9] The 17 miners of the night shift found that the entrance had been blocked and a secondary tunnel was filling with water from the river which had been dammed by the slide.[13] They unsuccessfully tried to dig their way through the blocked entrance before one miner suggested he knew of a seam of coal that reached the surface. Working a narrow tunnel in pairs and threes, they dug through the coal for hours as the air around them became increasingly toxic.[14] By late afternoon, only three men had enough energy to continue digging when they broke through to the surface.[13] It was too dangerous to use the opening they created due to falling rocks from above, but encouraged by their success, the miners cut a new shaft that broke through under an outcropping of rock that protected them from falling debris. Thirteen hours after they were buried, all 17 men emerged from the mountain.[14]

One miner found his family alive and safe in a makeshift hospital, but another emerged to discover his wife and four children had perished.[15] Fifteen-year-old Lillian Clark worked a late shift in the town's boarding house that night and was given permission for the first time to spend the night rather than return home.[16] She was the only member of her family to survive. Her father was working outside the mine when the slide hit, while her mother and six siblings were buried in their home.[10] All 12 men living at the CPR work camp were killed, but 128 more who were scheduled to move into the camp the day before the slide failed to arrive the train that was supposed to take them from Morrissey, British Columbia to Frank forgot to pick them up.[17] The "Spokane Flyer", a passenger train heading west from Lethbridge, was saved by CPR brakeman Sid Choquette, who was one of two men who rushed across the rock-strewn ground to warn the train that the track had been buried under the slide.[18] Though rocks continued to fall around him, Choquette ran for 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) through a dust cloud that left him with little visibility to warn the oncoming locomotive of the danger. The CPR gave him a letter of commendation and a $25 cheque in recognition of his heroism.[6]

Aftermath

Premier Frederick Haultain arrived at the disaster site on May 1 where he met with engineers who had investigated the top of Turtle Mountain. They found that new fissures had formed at the peak, but felt another slide was likely. The CPR's chief engineer, however, was convinced that Frank was in imminent danger of being buried by another slide. Haultain ordered the town evacuated.[19] The Geological Survey of Canada sent two of its top geologists to investigate. They reported that the slide had created two new peaks on the mountain and that the north peak, overlooking the town, did not represent an immediate threat to the town.[20] As a result, the evacuation order was lifted on May 10 and Frank's citizens returned.[21] The tight control of the town by the North-West Mounted Police, reinforced by officers who arrived from Cranbrook, MacLeod and Calgary, ensured that no cases of looting were reported during the evacuation.[22]

The Canadian Pacific Railway was the primary route across Canada at the time, and clearing the route was paramount.[23] The CPR had the line cleared and rebuilt within three weeks.[10] Intent on reopening the mine, workers opened passageways to the old mine works by May 30. To their amazement, they discovered that Charlie the horse, one of three who worked the mine, had survived for over a month underground.[24] The horse subsisted on pools of water within and by eating the bark off the timber supports. Ironically, he was killed by his rescuers after they overfed him on oats and brandy.[25]

The town's population not only recovered, but grew, peaking at 1,000 residents.[3] A new townsite, called "New Frank" was constructed on the north side of the CPR line, farther away from the mountain and believed safer.[26] Following years of study, the Dominion government commissioned a study in 1911 to determine the risks to old townsite. It determined that the cracks in the mountain continued to grow and that the risk of another slide remained. Consequently, the government ordered Old Frank dismantled and relocated. Most buildings were moved to the new townsite, though some were moved to other communities in the Crowsnest Pass.[27]

A panorama of the slide area, showing the extent of the debris. (2007)

Causes

Several factors led to the Frank Slide.[28] A study conducted by the GSC immediately following the slide concluded that the primary cause was the mountain's unstable formation. The mountain had formed an anticline where a layer of limestone was pushed over top of softer materials that, after millions of years of erosion, resulted in a top-heavy, steep cliff.[29] Cracks laced the eastern face of the mountain while underground fissures allowed water to flow into the mountain's core.[30] Miners noticed the mountain had become increasingly unstable in the months preceding the slide; they felt small tremors and the superintendent reported a "general squeeze" in the mountain at depths between 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) and 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) where the coal broke from its seam and was said to practically mine itself.[31]

File:Turtlemtn prism.jpg
Monitoring Equipment installed at the peak of Turtle Mountain

The instability was worsened by an unusually warm winter that led to warm days and cold nights, leading moisture in the mountain's fissures to freeze and thaw repeatedly, further weakening the mountain's supports.[7] The region experienced heavy snowfall in March that was followed by a warm April, causing the mountain snows to melt into the fissures.[6] GSC geologists concluded that the weather conditions on the night of the slide was the probable trigger. It was said to have been the coldest night of the winter, with overnight temperatures falling below −18 °C (0 °F). Geologists speculated that the cold snap and rapid freezing resulted in expansion of the fissures, causing the limestone to break off and tumble down the mountain.[31]

Though the GSC concluded that mining activities contributed to the slide, the facility's owners disagreed and their engineers claimed that the mine bore no responsibility.[32] Later studies suggested that the mountain was at a point of "equilibrium" such that even a small deformation caused by the mine's existence would have helped trigger the slide.[33] The mine quickly re-opened though rock continued to tumble down the mountain.[34] Coal production at Frank peaked in 1910,[35] but the mine was permanently closed in 1917 after it became unprofitable.[34]

The slide created two new peaks on the mountain; the south peak of stands 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) high and the north peak 2,100 metres (6,900 ft).[8] Geologists believe that another slide is inevitable, though not imminent. The south peak is considered the most likely to fall if another slide should occur.[36] The mountain has been studied on numerous occasions and is continuously monitored for changes in stability.[37] The Alberta Geological Survey operates a state of the art monitoring system that is utilized by researchers around the world.[38] Over 80 monitoring stations have been placed throughout the face of the mountain to provide an early warning system for area residents in the case of another slide.[39]

Legends

Numerous legends and misconceptions were spawned in the aftermath of the slide.[34] It was thought by some that the entire town of Frank had been buried, though much of the town itself was unscathed.[40] The belief that a branch of the Union Bank of Canada had been buried with as much as $500,000 persisted for many years.[41] The bank was untouched, however, and remained in the same location until it was demolished in 1911, after which the buried treasure legend was spawned.[42] Crews building a new road through the pass in 1924 operated under police guard as it was believed they could unearth the supposedly buried bank.[12]

Several people passed themselves off as the "sole survivor" in the years following, telling amazing stories to those who would listen.[34] The most common tale is that of an infant girl said to have been the only survivor of the slide.[3] Her real name unknown, the girl was called "Frankie Slide" and the several stories were told of her miraculous escape. Depending on who told the story, the girl was found in a bale of hay, lying on rocks, under the collapsed roof of her house or in the arms of her dead mother.[43] The legend was based primarily on the story of Marian Leitch, who was thrown from her home into a pile of hay when the slide enveloped her home. Her sisters also survived, found unharmed under a collapsed ceiling joist, but her parents and four brothers all died.[6] Influencing the story was the survival of two-year-old Gladys Ennis, who was found outside her home in the mud. She was the last survivor of the slide, dying in 1995.[10] In total, 23 people in the path of the slide survived, in addition to the 17 miners who escaped the tunnels under Turtle Mountain.[42]

Legacy

Curious sightseers flocked to the site of the slide within days of the disaster.[21] It has remained a popular tourist destination, in part due to its proximity to the Crowsnest Highway. The province built a roadside turnout in 1941 to accommodate the traffic.[44] Town boosters unsuccessfully sought to have the site designated as a National Historic Site in 1958, though it was later designated a Provincial Historic Site of Alberta.[45] The provincial government also designated the slide area a restricted development zone in 1976, preventing alteration of the slide site.[46] The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre was opened in 1985 within sight of the mountain as a museum and tourist stop documenting both the Frank Slide and of the region's coal mining history in general.[47] The site receives over 100,000 tourist visits annually.[3]

Though Frank recovered from the slide and achieved a peak population of 1,000 shortly after, the closure of the mine resulted in a longstanding decline in population.[35] Frank ceased to be an independent community in 1979 when it was amalgamated into the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass along with the neighbouring communities of Blairmore, Coleman and Bellevue.[48] Frank is now home to about 200 residents.[3] In spite of the risk, nine homes existed in the path geologists predict the next slide will occur at the time of the slide's 100th anniversary in 2003.[6]

References

General
  • Anderson, Frank W. (2005) [1968], Wilson, Diana (ed.), Triumph and Tragedy in the Crowsnest Pass, Surrey, British Columbia: Heritage House Publishing Ltd., ISBN 1-894384-16-4
  • Benko, Boris; Stead, Doug (1998), "The Frank slide: a reexamination of the failure mechanism" (PDF), Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 35
  • Byfield, Ted, ed. (1992), Alberta in the 20th Century: The birth of a province, 1900–1910, vol. 2, Edmonton, Alberta: United Western Communications, ISBN 0-9695718-1-X
  • Kerr, J. William (1990), Frank Slide, Calgary, Alberta: Barker Publishing Ltd., ISBN 0-9694761-0-8
  • van Herk, Aritha (2001), Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta, Toronto Ontario: Penguin Group, ISBN 0-14-028602-0
Footnotes
  1. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 55
  2. ^ a b Anderson 2005, p. 6
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Reichel, Justina (2012-04-26), "Frank Slide remembered", The Epoch Times, retrieved 2012-04-30
  4. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 57
  5. ^ a b Bonikowsky, Laura, Frank Slide, Historica-Dominion Institute of Canada, retrieved 2012-04-30
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bergman, Brian (2003-04-28), "100th anniversary of Frank Slide disaster", Maclean's Magazine, Historica-Dominion Institute of Canada, retrieved 2012-05-01
  7. ^ a b van Herk 2001, p. 385
  8. ^ a b Frank Slide facts, Government of Alberta, retrieved 2012-05-01
  9. ^ a b "A disaster", Montreal Gazette, p. 1, 1903-04-30, retrieved 2012-05-01
  10. ^ a b c d e f 1930: 90 seconds of terror in the Frank rockslide, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 2012-05-01
  11. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 63
  12. ^ a b "Skeletons at Blairmore", Montreal Gazette, p. 1, 1924-05-17, retrieved 2012-05-23
  13. ^ a b Kerr 1990, p. 15
  14. ^ a b Anderson 2005, p. 86
  15. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 88
  16. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 63
  17. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 24
  18. ^ Anderson 2005, pp. 71–72
  19. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 91
  20. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 33
  21. ^ a b Anderson 2005, p. 93
  22. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 92
  23. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 30
  24. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 94
  25. ^ Clarke, Jay (1989-09-29), "Scene of rock slide still startling", Spokane Chronicle, p. 14, retrieved 2012-05-07
  26. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 34
  27. ^ Anderson 2005, p. 98
  28. ^ Benko & Stead 1998, p. 302
  29. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 41
  30. ^ The Frank Slide story, Government of Alberta, retrieved 2012-05-20
  31. ^ a b Anderson 2005, p. 96
  32. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 38
  33. ^ Benko & Stead 1998, p. 311
  34. ^ a b c d Byfield 1992, p. 377
  35. ^ a b Kerr 1990, p. 36
  36. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 47
  37. ^ Benko & Stead 1998, p. 300
  38. ^ Gignac, Tamara (2010-01-08), "High-tech radar guards residents against disaster" (PDF), Calgary Herald, Alberta Geological Survey, retrieved 2012-05-21
  39. ^ Seskus, Tony (2008-04-06), "Site of historic landslide shifting" (PDF), Calgary Herald, Alberta Geological Survey, retrieved 2012-05-21
  40. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 9
  41. ^ "Every spring Turtle Mountain sends grim reminders of past", Regina Leader-Post, p. 64, 1980-05-07, retrieved 2012-05-14
  42. ^ a b Anderson 2005, p. 99
  43. ^ Kerr 1990, p. 21
  44. ^ "Frank Slide tourist site", Calgary Herald, p. 2, 1941-09-12, retrieved 2012-05-23
  45. ^ Shiels, Bob (1980-01-31), "The Kerrs want a museum in the Pass", Calgary Herald, p. D14, retrieved 2012-05-23
  46. ^ "Rock bottom bargain", Calgary Herald, p. A1, 1984-09-11, retrieved 2012-05-23
  47. ^ Shiels, Bob (1985-05-01), "Guests hail Frank Slide centre", Calgary Herald, p. F10, retrieved 2012-05-23
  48. ^ White, Geoff (1978-10-19), "Legislation introduced to unify Crowsnest area", Calgary Herald, p. A3, retrieved 2012-05-23

External links

49°35′28″N 114°23′43″W / 49.59111°N 114.39528°W / 49.59111; -114.39528 (Frank Slide)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Slide&oldid=494204611"