1. When did the Frank Slide take place?

On April 29, 1903 at 4:10 AM, 30 million cubic meters (90 million tons, 82 million tonnes) of limestone fell from Turtle Mountain in just 90 seconds.

2. What caused the Frank Slide?

The primary cause of the Frank slide was the unstable structure of Turtle Mountain. A thrust fault runs through it, and eroding sandstone and shale beneath older limestone plus deeply eroded cracks in the limestone on the top would have caused the rock to fall eventually. Secondary causes include coal mining inside the mountain and dramatic changes in weather conditions - a quick freeze - that night.

Secondary causes were coal mining inside the mountain and dramatic changes in weather conditions – a quick freeze - that night.

3. How many people were killed?

Of the 600 people living in Frank at the time of the rockslide, approximately 70 were killed.

4. Were all of the bodies recovered from the slide?

There were twelve bodies pulled from the rubble in the few days after the rockslide. In 1922, a construction crew uncovered a home, believed to belong to the Alfred Clark family.

5. What about the baby girl who was found on a rock?

The story of a baby girl being the only survivor of the Frank Slide is erroneous, though one of our most famous myths. This story does have its roots in bits of truth, as there were several young girls who survived the disaster. The first was Fernie Watkins, a young girl found in the debris by pit boss, Edgar Ash. The second girl was Marion Leitch, 15 months old, who was thrown from her house to safety on a pile of hay. Gladys Ennis was 27 months old at the time of the disaster, and was found in a pile of mud. Lucy Ennis, Gladys's mother, is credited with saving her life, as she cleared her daughter's nose and throat of mud.

6. Are there any survivors from the slide still living?

The last survivor to pass away was Gladys Ennis, who died in Bellevue, Washington in 1995.

7. Why is the disaster called the Frank Slide?

The town of Frank was named in 1901, after its founder, Henry Luplin Frank, a businessman from Butte, Montana who saw opportunity with the great coal of the Crowsnest Pass. When the rockslide happened in 1903, it covered a portion of the town of Frank, earning the name the Frank Slide.

8. What was destroyed in the slide?

There were 7 miner's cottages (6 inhabited at the time,) a dairy farm, ranch, shoe store, livery stable, cemetery, 2 km of the road and CPR rail line, 3 km of the Frank and Grassy Mountain Railway, a construction camp and all of the surface buildings for the Frank mine.

9. If the entire town wasn't destroyed in the slide, why is it not at its original location?

The town was initially established at the base of Turtle Mountain. This provided easy and quick access to the Frank Mine. After 1903, some people began to move away from the mountain, fearing another slide. The town did expand over the years, but there was nowhere for it to grow eastward, so the town of New Frank took root just northwest of the original town. In 1911, a Royal Commission study found the North Peak of Turtle Mountain to be structurally unstable. In reaction to this study, the government ordered everyone out of that section of Frank. People moved to other areas of the Crowsnest Pass, and many settled in New Frank, the present location of Frank.

Bibliography

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Allan, J.A., Report on Stability of Turtle Mountain, Crowsnest District, Alberta. Dept. of Public Works, Edmonton: Alberta Provincial Archives, 1931.

Allan, J.A., Second Report on Stability of Turtle Mountain, Crowsnest District, Alberta. Dept. of Public Works, Edmonton: Alberta Provincial Archives, 1932.

Allan, J.A., Report on Stability of Turtle Mountain, Alberta and Survey of Fissures Between North Peak and South Peak. Dept. of Public Works, Edmonton: Alberta Provincial Archives, 1933.

Anderson, Frank, Tragedies of the Crowsnest Pass. Surrey: Frontier Books, 1983.

Beaty, Chester B., The Landscapes of Southern Alberta - A Regional Geomorphology. Lethbridge: University of Alberta Production Services, 1975.

Biberhofer, Heidi, Turtle Mountain Study Archive Inventory. Edmonton: Alberta Environment, 1983.

Bingham, D.K., Seismic Monitoring of Turtle Mountain. Unpublished report, Hydrogeology Branch, Edmonton: Alberta Environment, 1996.

Cousins, James Wm., A History of the Crow's Nest Pass. Lethbridge: The Historical Trails Society of Alberta, 1981.

Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, Crowsnest and Its People. Crowsnest Pass: Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979.

Cruden, D.M., Report on the Great Landslide at Frank. Alberta History. Spring 2002, Volume 50, Number 2, pp. 16-21.

Cruden, D.M. and Beaty, C.B., A Short Drive Through the Frank Slide. Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide, Rocky Mountain Section, 1987.

Cruden, D.M. and Krahn, J., Frank Rockslide, Alberta, Canada. Voight, Barry ed. Rockslides and Avalanches, Vol.1 Natural Phenomena. Chapter 2. pp. 97-112. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, 1978.

Daly, R.A., Miller, W.G., & Rice, G.S., Report of the Commission Appointed to Investigate Turtle Mountain, Frank, Alberta. Canadian Geological Survey Mem. 27. 34 pp., 1912.

Field, M.F., McIntyre, D. M., On the Edge of Destruction - Canada's Deadliest Rockslide. Crowsnest Pass: Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, 2003.

Jones, P.B., Structural Geology of the Modern Frank Slide and Ancient Bluff Mountain Slide, Crowsnest, Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, 41 (2). pp. 232-243, 1993.

Kerr, J.W., Frank Slide. Calgary: Barker Publishing, 1990..

McConnell, R.G. and Brock, B.W., Report on the Great Landslide at Frank, Alta., 1903. Edmonton: Edmonton Geological Society, 2003.

Pearce, Wm., The Great Landslide at Frank, Alberta. In Engineering News. June 4, 1903. pp. 490-492

Stewart, D.A., A Disaster in the Rockies. The Canadian Magazine. 4. pp. 227-233, 1903.