Turtle Mountain and the Frank Slide
From a roadside sign:
In the early morning of 29 April 1903, most of the almost 600 residents of of the coal mining town of Frank were asleep. At the coal mine, the night shift was down in the mine, and a few men were working on the surface in the mine buildings.
At 4:10, a crashing, thunderous roar filled the dark, sleeping town and spilled out into the Crowsnest Pass. A wedge of limestone over one kilometre wide, 425 metres long and 150 metres deep, had broken from the crest of Turtle Mountain. It smashed apart as it slid downwards, breaking into boulders that rolled and bounced down the side of the mountain, and spread across the valley.
In about 90 seconds, homes, buildings, and lives were destroyed. The rocks covered part of Frank, closed the entrance to the mine, and swept away the mine buildings and those working in them. The miners underground managed to tunnel their way to the surface. The slide had also buried a construction camp, livery stables, tents, a store, and some ranch buildings. Seventy people are known to have died.
The sound of the slide had been heard kilometres away, and clouds of limestone dust hung over the Pass for quite a while. While daily life gradually returned to Frank, the slide remained an imposing presence. As one resident commented, "the slide is always with us."
One of the survivors of the slide was a horse working in the mines named Charlie. Charlie was discovered three days later, dehydrated and starving, and fed whiskey and oats. The rich foods proved to be too much for the horse's traumatized system, and killed him. This cache is hidden in his honor.