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1. The Frank Slide

Geographic Perspectives

2. Background Information:

Spatial Significance:  The People

Frank, Alberta, is located in the Crowsnest Pass region of of the Rocky Mountains in Southwestern Alberta. The town was created by the Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company in 1901 after large deposits of coal had been discovered a year earlier. It was named after one of the company co-owners, Henry Frank, who helped design the layout of the town that would house miners and their families near the Turtle Mountain coal mine. By 1903, the permanent population had reached 600 and boasted all the amenities a Western town of that time could have. Though Westerners had settled the surrounding area in previous decades, the area had been long occupied by the Blackfoot and Kutenai First Nations people, who chose never to camp beneath the mountain at the location that would become the Frank townsite. 

ALT TAG - An anticline, formed when convergent tectonic plates fold rock layers into an arch.

3. Spatial Significance: The Landscape

Turtle Mountain is a unique geological formation that, in itself, made the mountain unstable. The mountain’s bedrock structure is known in geologic terms as an anticline, formed when convergent tectonic plates fold rock layers into an arch 

4. Spatial Significance

The unique geologic past predisposed the mountain to failure, but along with its natural weaknesses, human activity played a supporting role in its instability. Coal mining requires digging deep shafts and emptying large caverns of coal from the diagonal seams that follow the curved anticline. Together, these two situations proved to be a tragic combination for Turtle Mountain.

5. Patterns and Trends: Warning Signs Ignored

The Blackfoot and Kutenai First Nations people had long been weary of events at Turtle Mountain. Oral tradition had passed down stories of the “mountain that moved” and both groups thought better than to set up camps beneath the mountain. Local knowledge of the landscape and a keen observation of nature allowed the groups to determine that the area directly beneath the mountain was unsafe and should be avoided.

The settlers and miners who came to the area in search of work quickly became accustomed to the regular tremors and movements within the mountain. The coal was said to practically mine itself because it would routinely fall from the ceiling and seams would crumble into piles ready to be shovelled. Despite these clear signs of instability and danger, the miners pushed on deeper into the mountain opening caverns of greater size.  

6. Patterns and Trends: Warning Signs Ignored

In the months preceding the slide, miners felt even more frequent movements but no one at the time would have thought that an entire mountain was susceptible to collapse.

The winter leading up to the April slide was unseasonably warm, allowing more water than usual to seep into the mountain. Spring weather conditions brought seesaw  rises and drops in temperature that would allow water to seep deep into the mountain, only to freeze a short time later.  This expanded the cracks and fissures already present as a result of the mountain’s geologic past and present human activity. It was said that the night before the slide, temperature dropped to -18 degrees celsius. Patterns and trends in weather conditions are believed to be a contributing factor to the slide.

7. Interrelationships:

Natural-Natural: Weak rock layers were made weaker by the erosive action of water and ice.

Natural-Human: Weak rock layers were made weaker by the action of coal mining, giving the mountain a “swiss cheese” structure.

Human- Human: The miners’/settlers’ lack of knowledge and purely economic intentions increased the scale of the disaster.  Not only were the miners trapped, but the town that housed their families was actually built in the path of the rockslide.

Human-Human: The deep ecological connection that the First Nations had with the environment directed their decision to steer clear of Turtle Mountain, and in turn, ensured their safety.

8. First Nations Perspectives: The Blackfoot

“The Blackfoot tribes had an enormous land base they inhabited. Within this territory they had areas where they would travel well over 500 miles during a yearly cycle to hunt, gather, and renew religious commitments. Being knowledgeable of their environment and respectful of their gifts from the creator, they would carefully select locations or places to travel to in a lifetime. There were many things to be considered and nature played a great role in their decisions. They paid careful attention to the new emerging plants, the return of the
migration birds, and changing habits of the animals. The type of winter they endured, if severe, might bring great hardship. The Blackfoot were taught from infancy and throughout their lifetime how to survive and be in harmony with their environment. A yearly cycle not only replenished their food and material sources, but also rekindled their mental, physical, and spiritual well being.” excerpt from “Relationship with the Land” created by the Glenbow Museum, retrieved from http://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/teacher_toolkit/pdf/Land_Resources.pdf

9. Western Settler/Miner Perspective

The Western view of the environment first and foremost consisted of the ownership of land and its use for economic gain. Beginning with groups like the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies as far back as the 1700s, the new world of North America was seen as a wealth of resources that were ripe for the taking. Man was viewed as a conqueror of nature. Therefore, it was his right and duty to take from it what was available. Society was organized so that wealthy companies with the means to develop industrial activity were largely responsible for the settling of towns and cities which served an economic or strategic purpose. A vast majority of present-day Canadian towns and cities are the result of early outposts set up by trading companies whose influence has long since vanished.

10. The Slide

In the early morning hours of April 29th,1903, 30 million cubic metres (82 million tonnes) of limestone rock broke off the peak of Turtle Mountain. The section that broke was 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) wide, 425 metres (1,394 ft) high and 150 metres (490 ft) deep. Witnesses to the disaster claimed it took about 100 seconds for the slide to reach up the opposing hills, indicating the mass of rock traveled at a speed of about 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph).The sound was heard as far away as Cochrane, over 200 kilometres north of Frank. Reports state that between 70-90 lives were taken, making it the most deadly landslide in Canadian history.

11. Present Day View of the Frank Slide

Notes:

ALT TAG - An aerial photograph of the present day landscape created by the Frank Slide.