Living on the Edge

In their thirst to exploit the natural wealth of their country, Canadians have endured deprivation and danger. The residents of the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, Canada, have chosen to live on the edge of imminent disaster at every turn.

The Frank Slide: Frank, NWT (now Alberta) thrived because of its coal mine, a prosperous enterprise that ripped deep seams into the mountain that hovered over the town. At 4:00 a.m. on April 29,1903, the side of the mountain unexpectedly disintegrated, depositing two hundred million tons of debris on the sleeping people of Frank, claiming 76 lives. While entire families were destroyed with their residences, others on the edge of the devastation lost only one or two of their family members. Miraculously, a whole shift of miners in the mountain survived, one rushing home to find that his wife and five children had perished in the slide.

The Hillcrest Mine Disaster: Although early twentieth century coal mines had various government regulations in place, the deadly combination of poor ventilation, coal dust and errant sparks caused by machinery or men, proved fatal to hundreds who worked these mines. In the shadow of Turtle Mountain and the rubble of the Frank Slide, the Hillcrest Mine had started its morning shift on June 19, 1914, when an explosion ripped through Tunnel 33, killing 189 of the 215 men at work that day. Many families lost all of their men in Canada's worst mining tragedy.