Article

Frank Slide Interpretive Centre

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited December 16, 2013

The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre is located on the site of the FRANK SLIDE, in the municipality of CROWSNEST PASS, Alta. On 29 April 1903 part of Turtle Mountain broke away and slid through part of the mining community of Frank. There is still considerable controversy over the cause of the slide.

Frank Slide Interpretive Centre

The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre is located on the site of the FRANK SLIDE, in the municipality of CROWSNEST PASS, Alta. On 29 April 1903 part of Turtle Mountain broke away and slid through part of the mining community of Frank. There is still considerable controversy over the cause of the slide. Some believe unsafe mining practices contributed to the slide, while others believe it was simply a natural disaster. Whatever the cause, some 70 people died in the slide, which left millions of tonnes of rock strewn across the Crowsnest River Valley.

The Frank Slide Centre interprets more than the slide, however. Open year round, it introduces visitors to the fascinating history of the coal-mining communities of the Crowsnest Pass. In addition the centre has several interpretive trails and can introduce visitors to other historic sites in the area like the Bellevue Mine, Hillcrest Cemetery, where the victims of Canada's worst mining accident are buried, or the abandoned townsite of Lille.