The death toll was uncertain. @Gail Candido, that’s what the internet get you! Engineer Ben Murgatroyd scanned the dark rails ahead, watching for broken rails and snow slides common in the Crowsnest Pass during winter. Destroyed in seconds, The Frank Slide - 1903. The cards below show how massive amounts of limestone were moved to uncover the railroad tracks that facilitated the movement of coal from Turtle Mountain. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Beside the livery stable ('E' on the map), Alfred 'Jack' Dawe slept. We arranged that those who were not cutting would have to sit to one side out of the road, while some were cutting timbers and others were keeping close watch on the lamps. In 1901, excavation began and a drift mine was sunk deep into the bowels of Turtle Mountain in order to mine the massive deposits of coal beneath the eastern slope of the mountain. 8 manway to see if they could attempt to go out through the upper tunnel. Alex, who worked the night shift, had already gone to the mines. The house was overturned three times, and yet the occupants were practically uninjured. Thank you for the excellent Frank Rock Slide article. There was no warning and within seconds the southern part of Frank that was home to over 100 residents, about two miles of railroad and the entrance to a coal mine vanished under fifty to one hundred feet of rock, sand and dust. Left at home in Frank were Annie Bansemer and her 7 other children, Albert, Carl Jr., Frances, Rose, Hilda, Kate and Harold (who had been born in Frank only 5 months earlier). There was Alex Tashigan, an Armenian weigh scale operator; Joseph Chapman, foreman of the crew, from Wales; Evan 'Halfpint' Jones, Chapman's assistant; John Watkins; William Warrington; Alex Clark; 'Shorty' Dawson; Dan McKenzie; Alex McPhail; Alex Grant; and Charlie Farrell, and one other unknown man.

The Blackfoot Tribe, as an example refused to camp near the mountain. It is difficult to imagine, but among the tales told are some of the most extraordinary stories of survival. Behind, in the caboose, were the conductor, Henri Pettit, and brakemen, Sid Choquette and Bill Lowes. His eldest daughter, Lillian, was, unbeknownst to him, staying at the boarding house where she worked. We decided to wait until 7 o’clock in the morning to see if we couldn’t hear anyone outside, and if we couldn’t hear anyone at that time we were to start and cut through. No fault can be assigned for a fact of nature, but the cause must be considered as a factor. Required fields are marked *. We got him out, and they all started down the manway. Beside them (see 'F' on the map) lived the Leitch family: Alex and Rosemary and their 7 children Athol, Wilfred, John, Allen, Jessie, Rosemary and baby Marion. Glad you like what we do here. McKenzie also. Also nearby is a scene of a destruction of such magnitude that it has never been equalled! Smith, where he learned that the 'Spokane Flyer', a passenger train, was running an hour and a half behind schedule due to a snowstorm between Frank and McLeod.

The blast was full of coal dust. Besides, the tremors made their work a whole lot easier. The 6'th house was vacant, but, in the last house in the row lived the Clarks (see 'F' on the map). The freight would have to lay over on the siding until the Flyer passed. The Frank Slide is conjectured to be the result of three unrelated activities: geological instability, coal mining and weather. The early settlers and the First Nation tribes discovered Turtle Mountain but had suspicions about its movement. Canadian Disasters, Alberta Culture and Tourism: The Frank Slide Story. There is an interpretive center in Frank (approximately 40 miles north of Montana’s northern border with Canada) where University of Calgary professionals study the “movement” of the mountain (estimated to be one centimeter or one-third of an inch each year) which is a lot for a mountain. In the boarding house ('A' on the map), Lillian Clark, who had never spent a night away from home in her life, worked so late that she decided not to cross Gold Creek and join her mother and 5 brothers and sisters. Six cottages totally destroyed by rock and swept away like feathers.4The Toronto Star, Friday, May 1, 1903jQuery("#footnote_plugin_tooltip_4").tooltip({ tip: "#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_4", tipClass: "footnote_tooltip", effect: "fade", fadeOutSpeed: 100, predelay: 400, position: "top right", relative: true, offset: [10, 10] }); Besides the incredible survival of the seventeen miners, a other residents of Frank had miraculous escapes: In the house of Sam Innes were quietly sleeping Innes, his wife, and three children.

The Frank Rock Slide was one of the largest landslides in Canada's history. It is likely no surprise that within a few weeks the mining resumed, and trains were taking on an average of 14,000 tons per day, more coal than ever before, to markets in the west. Of all the town inhabitants numbering nearly 1,000, not one professes to have reached the outside of their domain in time to see any part of what took place, but when day dawned it was seen that the whole side of Turtle mountain had fallen away; and the country extending from the eastern edge of the town for two miles down the pass, and entirely across the pass, a distance of two miles or more from the mountain, lay buried beneath, rock and debris of various kinds for a depth varying from twenty-five to one hundred feet. I always look forward to reading the Postcard History and the price is right! In a month or so, he would have saved enough money to bring his bride from Red Lodge, Montana, to live with him in Frank. And we appreciate your posting a comment. Today there are literally dozens of conflicting estimates on how much rock fell, what caused the fall and how it most affected the village of Frank. The Frank Slide is a major rock avalanche (30 million m 3 ) that detached in 1903 from the eastern slope of Turtle Mountain, near the town of Frank [64]. The Blackfoot Tribe, as an example refused to camp near the mountain. Not probable there will be further slide of any consequence.3The Toronto Star, Friday, May 1, 1903jQuery("#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3").tooltip({ tip: "#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3", tipClass: "footnote_tooltip", effect: "fade", fadeOutSpeed: 100, predelay: 400, position: "top right", relative: true, offset: [10, 10] }); Then in a later report, the list of deaths and injuries was revised: The following is probably more nearly a correct estimate of the loss than any yet: thirty-four men, 8 women, 20 children, killed. We then decided we would kill the horses in a few minutes if the air did not clear. They were on their way to their new homestead in Lundbreck, to the east. The killed include 21 miners, and balance ranchers, merchants, liverymen, engineers, railway contractors, and labourers.

For many years we have thought that the mug had been made for someone called Frank Slide, how very wrong in our assumptions. Place very orderly this morning. Meanwhile, Robert Watt and Les Ferguson were just coming out of the Imperial Hotel. The early settlers and the First Nation tribes discovered Turtle Mountain but had suspicions about its movement. I was fascinated with the area as a child. Have good attendance. Choquette and Lowes ran along beside the engine. Shortly after midnight, Ned Morgan declined an invitation from Mrs. James Graham to stay the night with herself and her husband. I was a top of number 8 manway, and I noticed that the air in the workings was forcing everything before it towards the outside of the mountain, and the coal began to fall, and threatened to close the same.
Tremors became a regular occurrence in the mines, especially in the early-morning hours, and the miners became quite accustomed to the shaking. To get to the area (if approaching the Slide from the east, i.e.