Rockslide
In the early morning hours of April 29, 1903, a freight train pulled out of the mine and was slowly making its way towards the townsite when the crew heard a deafening rumble behind them. The engineer instinctively set the throttle to full speed ahead and sped his train to safety across the bridge over the Crowsnest River. At 4:10 AM, 30 million cubic metres (82 million tonnes) of limestone rock broke off the peak of Turtle Mountain. The section that broke was 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) wide, 425 metres (1,394 ft) high and 150 metres (490 ft) deep. Witnesses to the disaster claimed it took about 100 seconds for the slide to reach up the opposing hills, indicating the mass of rock traveled at a speed of about 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph). The sound was heard as far away as Cochrane, over 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Frank.
Initial reports on the disaster indicated that Frank had been "nearly wiped out" by the mountain's collapse. It was thought the rockslide was triggered by an earthquake, volcanic eruption or explosion within the mine. The majority of the town survived, but the slide buried buildings on the eastern outskirts of Frank. Seven cottages were destroyed, as were several businesses, the cemetery, a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) stretch of road and railroad tracks, and all of the mine's buildings.
Approximately 100 people lived in the path of destruction, located between the CPR tracks and the river. The actual death toll is uncertain; estimates range between 70 and 90. It is the deadliest landslide in Canadian history, and was the largest until the Hope Slide in 1965. It is possible that the toll may have been higher, since as many as 50 transients had been camped at the base of the mountain while looking for work. Some residents believed that they had left Frank shortly before the slide, though there is no way to be certain. Most of the victims remain entombed beneath the rocks; only 12 bodies were recovered in the immediate aftermath. The skeletons of six additional victims were unearthed in 1924 by crews building a new road through the slide.
Initial news reports stated that between 50 and 60 men were within the mountain and had been buried with no hope of survival. In reality, there were 20 miners working the night shift at the time of the disaster. Three had been outside the mine and were killed by the slide. The remaining 17 were underground. They discovered that the entrance was blocked and water from the river, which had been dammed by the slide, was coming in via a secondary tunnel. They unsuccessfully tried to dig their way through the blocked entrance before one miner suggested he knew of a seam of coal that reached the surface. Working a narrow tunnel in pairs and threes, they dug through the coal for hours as the air around them became increasingly toxic. Only three men still had enough energy to continue digging when they broke through to the surface late in the afternoon. The opening was too dangerous to escape from due to falling rocks from above. Encouraged by their success, the miners cut a new shaft that broke through under an outcropping of rock that protected them from falling debris. Thirteen hours after they were buried, all 17 men emerged from the mountain.
The miners found that the row of cottages that served as their homes had been devastated and some of their families killed, seemingly at random. One found his family alive and safe in a makeshift hospital, but another emerged to discover his wife and four children had perished. Fifteen-year-old Lillian Clark, working a late shift that night in the town's boarding house, had been given permission to stay overnight for the first time. She was the only member of her family to survive. Her father was working outside the mine when the slide hit, while her mother and six siblings were buried in their home. All 12 men living at the CPR work camp were killed, but 128 more who were scheduled to move into the camp the day before the slide failed to arrive—the train that was supposed to take them from Morrissey, British Columbia to Frank failed to pick them up. The Spokane Flyer, a passenger train heading west from Lethbridge, was saved by CPR brakeman Sid Choquette, one of two men who rushed across the rock-strewn ground to warn the train that the track had been buried under the slide. Through falling rocks and a dust cloud that impaired his visibility, Choquette ran for 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to warn the oncoming locomotive of the danger. The CPR gave him a letter of commendation and a $25 cheque in recognition of his heroism.
Read more about this topic: Frank Slide