In the wee hours of April 29, 1903, the small coal mining town of Frank Alberta lay sleeping at the foot of Turtle Mountain.
The mountain had been making rumbling and cracking noises for some time, but who was to understand that these had been warning signs of impending disaster?
Then at 4;10 AM on that deep cold morning, a terrible booming rumble was heard that lasted only 90 seconds, but was heard up to 200 kilometres away, all the way in fact to the major city of Calgary.
Some 82 million tonnes of limestone slab, a kilometre wide and half a kilometre thick broke off the peak and tore down the mountain, taking other massive rock with it. As the mass crashed down the slope and hit the valley floor it was breaking itself into huge boulders which roared across the eastern part of the sleeping town. Travelling at over 110 kilometers an hour, it spread about two kilometres across the valley floor.
Some 70-90 people were in the houses and buildings obliterated by the crushing limestone, which left part of the town, the roadway, and railway line buried under the massive boulders tens of metres deep.
The death toll may actually be higher as there many transients camped out at the base of the mountain while looking for work.
Most of the bodies still lie there, forever buried by the mountain’s rubble.
The good news was that 17 miners working in the mine, managed to dig themselves out by late afternoon.
It was later decided that the mountain was still unstable, and so the remaining town was moved further away. It grew in size until the coal mine shut down in 1917. Now, only about 200 people remain in what has been declared an Alberta historic site. However, the area receives about 100,000 visitors a year to its museum and interpretive centre.
The mountain is still considered somewhat unstable, and many monitoring sensors have been set up in various places on the slopes and peaks.
Video flyover (Frank slide Interpretive Centre)
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