When the 600 residents of Frank, Alta., went to bed on the evening of April 28, 1903, they had no idea the destruction they would wake up to.
At 4:10 a.m. the next day, nearby Turtle Mountain would come crumbling down, releasing 110 million metric tonnes of rock in Canada’s deadliest slide on record, killing around 100 people.
Today, those rocks remain on the landscape, bodies and belongings still buried — an ever-present reminder of the natural disaster. Alberta’s Highway 3 passes right through it.
“It was loud enough they could hear it up by the town of Cochrane, 200 kilometres away,” said Joey Ambrosi, the facility supervisor at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre.
Ambrosi has been working at the centre, which opened in 1985, for around 20 years telling true stories and busting myths about that fateful day 120 years ago.
“The story that went around the world in most cases was a whole mountain had fallen down, buried an entire town. The only survivor was one baby girl they found out on the rocks,” he said.
“So they named her Frankie Slide.”
But he said that story is untrue. The entire mountain hadn’t fallen down, and most of the town was untouched. It was later moved away from the original site.
As well, there were many other survivors who emerged from the wreckage. Experts believe the rock slide occurred due to poor stability, with weather conditions and mining operations playing a role as well.
“For (example a) mother, the father, and four sons died. Three daughters survived,” he continued.
“Some people lived and some people died. It’s a matter of fate, luck, whatever you want to call it.”
In an effort to remember those lost and keep the history alive, Fred Bradley with the Crowsnest Heritage Initiative Society is organizing a service on Saturday afternoon at the dedicated headstone.
“We’ve been having memorial services here since the 50th, the 75th, and every five years after,” Bradley explained.
“It’s to remember the victims, the tragedy, and also the story of survival.”
Stephanie Laine Hamilton, a public historian from Lethbridge, brought a presentation about the event to attendees at the Lethbridge Public Library on Tuesday.
She previously worked at the interpretive centre and helped co-edit a second edition of a bestselling book about Frank Slide.
“It’s great to be able to share some of the things that I’ve learned about the history of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with the people here (in Lethbridge),” she said. “I, like most people in Lethbridge, have spent quite a bit of time in the Pass growing up so it’s kind of like our backyard a little bit.”
But as visitors or travellers observe the remnants of the disaster, they may be wondering: could it happen again?
According to Ambrosi, the mountain is closely monitored and moves a few millimetres each year.
“It will come down again,” Ambrosi said.
“What scientists tell us, it will likely come down in four of five large chunks over the next couple thousand years. Nothing as big as this one. The next slide will probably be one-sixth the size of this.”
Frank Slide isn’t the only tragedy the mining community in the area endured. The Crowsnest Pass, which encompasses several towns at the eastern edge of Alberta’s Rockies, has a storied past.
“Over there we have the town of Bellevue,” Ambrosi said as he pointed east. “In 1910 31 men were killed in an underground explosion. There’s a little town of Hillcrest, which in 1914, 189 men were killed.
“So those are the three worst disasters in Alberta, all within a stone’s throw of one another.”
The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre is open all year round. Approximately 200 people currently live in Frank.
Ed note: This story has been updated to correct the volume of rock involved in the slide to 110 million metric tonnes.