Drive down the Crowsnest Pass,
August 10, 2004.

They don't call Alberta "big Sky Country" for nothing.

Typical scenery driving down Highway 22 South from Calgary.

It feels just how it looks when you go down there and take the time to wind down from the pace of city life.

Close up of the flora of the area.

Our picnic lunch stop, Lundbreck Falls, just East of the Crowsnest Pass.

View of the falls from above. The bridge you see in the background is still in use and part of the CPR line through the Crowsnest Pass.

Believe it or not, the twisted and dramatically wind-sculpted Burmis Tree is probably the most photographed and painted tree in all of Canada. A testament to the rugged weather of the Crowsnest Pass area, this 735-year-old limber pine fell in 1988, but was re-erected and remains one of the most recognizable of Alberta's icons. This tree is along the main highway #2 across the Crowsnest Pass. Behind it you can see Turtle Mountain and Frank Slide (see next photo for details).

On April 29, 1903, at 4:10 am, 82 million tonnes (30 million cubic metres) of limestone crashed from the summit of Turtle Mountain and buried a portion of the sleeping town of Frank. The dimensions of the rock mass that fell are 150 metres (500 feet) deep, 425 metres (1,400 feet) high and one kilometre (3,280 feet) wide. The mechanism of movement that enabled the rockslide-avalanche to spread over 3 square kilometres (1.2 square miles) of the valley in less than 100 seconds has been the subject of considerable discussion.

At daylight, the inhabitants of Frank and area scrambled onto boulders and viewed a grey rocky landscape swirling with dust. The main part of the town was intact, but the mine entrance and mine buildings were buried. Seventeen miners trapped inside performed an astonishing self-rescue. They tunnelled upwards and broke through the surface on the face of the mountain.

Out of 600 people in Frank, 100 were in the path of the slide. Cottages at the east end of town were crushed; amazingly 23 people in that area survived. Out of approximately 70 people killed, only 12 bodies were recovered. A memorial grave is located at the west end of the old road through the Frank Slide. A little further west of there, building foundations of the former town, and a lone rusting fire hydrant are visible.

The mine re-opened and continued working until 1917. The town of Frank gradually moved north, to its present location and a 1911 Royal Commission report warned that another slide was possible.

The primary cause of the Frank Slide was the mountain's unstable structure. Underground coal mining, water action in summit cracks and severe weather conditions may have contributed to the disaster. There are several theories to explain how the debris was able to travel such a distance from the mountain, but most scientists accept that the material flowed like a thick liquid.

The Frank Slide is a landscape feature of unique geologic and historic interest. It is known to earth scientists from around the world. Three generations of geology students have read and studied pictures of the slide and many of them have visited the site..

This information was taken from the web site at http://www.crowsnestpass.com/Tourism/historic/frankslide.html