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The Frank Slide is a natural Landslide feature in the southern Rocky Mountains of Canada , and a significant historical event in western Canada.

Frank, Alberta is a coal mining town in the Crowsnest Pass , Alberta (formerly Northwest Territories ). On April 29, 1903, at 4:10 a.m., 82 million tonnes (30 million cubic meters) of limestone crashed from the summit of Turtle Mountain and covered approximately three square kilometers of the valley floor. The slide dammed the Crowsnest River and formed a small lake, covered 2km of the Canadian Pacific Railway, destroyed most of the coal mine's surface infrastructure, and buried seven houses on the outskirts of the sleeping town of Frank, as well as several rural buildings. Frank was home to approximately 600 people in 1903; of the roughly 100 individuals who lived in the path of the slide, more than 70 were killed.

The town was evacuated, but people were soon allowed to return and both the mine and the railway were back in operation within a month. The town of Frank continued to grow, until a report on the mountain’s stability resulted in the province ordering the closure of the south part of the town in 1911. Studies and monitoring continue today.

The Frank Slide was designated a Provincial Historical Resource in 1977, and in 1985 a major interpretive centre opened in the town of Frank that describes the slide and the coal-mining history of the area.


GEOLOGY

Turtle Mountain is an anticline of Paleozoic Rundle Group carbonates thrust over weaker Mesozoic clastics and coals. Summit fissures at the apex of the anticline likely allowed water to infiltrate and weaken the slightly-soluble carbonates within the mountain face, while the supporting underlying clastics were undermined by valley glaciation followed by erosion from the Crowsnest River.

The slide removed the top of Turtle Mountain, leaving a present elevation of 2,109 metres (6,920 feet) for the north peak and 2,200 metres (7,217 feet) for the south peak.

The primary cause of the slide was the mountain's unstable structure, although severe spring weather conditions, underground coal mining activity, and an earthquake on the Aleutian Islands in 1901 may have contributed.


HISTORICAL NOTES


  • Only twelve bodies were recovered from the debris at the time of the slide. In 1922, a road construction crew uncovered the remains of seven more people.


  • Several people in the direct path of the slide survived, including three young girls. Fernie Watkins was found amongst the debris. Marion Leitch, 15 months old, was thrown from her house to safety on a pile of hay. Gladys Ennis, 27 months old, was found choking in a pile of mud (she died in 1995 at age 94, the last survivor of the slide).


  • Warnings were telegraphed westward to Cranbrook, but the eastern lines were severed. Two railway brakemen set out across the rockslide to flag down the Spokane Flyer, but only Syd Choquette made it across in time to flag down the train.


  • Seventeen men trapped in the Frank mine escaped by tunneling through virgin rock to the surface, which was easier than trying to clear the debris at the entrance.


  • A mine horse named Charlie survived alone in the mine for a month, but succumbed to its rescuers' kindness from overeating, without ever seeing daylight.



REFERENCES


Anderson, Frank W. ''The Frank Slide Story''. Frontier Books, 1968.

Kerr, J. W. ''Frank Slide''. Barker, 1990.

''Crowsnest and its People''. Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979.

''On the Edge of Destruction'' National Film Board of Canada, ID 153C0103256, 2003.


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