![]() ![]() Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. It made an important contribution to geological science, because the size of the slide and a lack of vegetation made it one of the first to receive detailed geological study. ![]() The second largest catastrophic slide in Canadian history and one of the twenty largest slides in the world, the Frank Slide is one of the most impressive and best known natural phenomena in Alberta. The Winnipeg Fuel and Supply Company operated lime kilns here until 1923. However, the rock proved useful for railway maintenance across the prairies and for the production of lime. The scale of the disaster and concern over the mountain's instability provoked unprecedented government action, including a 1911 Royal Commission and a decision by the provincial government to close coal mining operations in the mountain. The primary cause of the Frank Slide was the mountain's unstable structure, though underground mining, water action in summit cracks and severe weather conditions may have contributed to the disaster. Seventeen miners trapped inside the mountain managed to rescue themselves by tunneling upwards to the surface. The slide buried the southern end of the town of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) through the Pass, and the mine plant of the Canadian-American Coal Company, killing seventy people. In the course of one hundred seconds the mountain face toppled and slid four kilometres across the valley, rising to 152 metres above the valley floor on the other side. On April 29, 1903, the east face of Turtle Mountain fell way into the Crowsnest River valley. Heritage Valueįrank Slide is significant as the site of the worst natural disaster in Alberta's history, as a geological phenomenon which may still yield significant scientific information, and as a provincial landmark. It includes the extensive field of boulder debris from the 1903 rock slide, a lone surviving fire hydrant from the town of Frank destroyed in the slide, and three lime kilns. The Frank Slide is a cultural landscape encompassing roughly 508 hectares between the towns of Frank and Bellevue. ![]()
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