The Frank Slide

Frank, NWT (now Alberta) thrived because of its coal mine a prosperous enterprise that ripped deep seams into the mountain that loomed over the town. At 4:10 a.m. on April 29, 1903, the side of the mountain unexpectedly desintegrated, depositing 90,000,000 tons of debris on the sleeping people of Frank, and claiming 76 lives. In some cases, entire families were destroyed with their residences, while others on the edge of the devastation lost only 1 or 2 of their family members. Miraculously, a whole shift of miners in the mountain survived, 1 rushing home to find that his wife and 5 children had perished in the slide.