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I got up early (around 6:30) but nobody else was up. Breakfast
was included in my room rate, but I waited until 8:10 without so much as
a stir from anybody else (except the collie--who followed me everywhere
I went). I was chomping at the bit to get going, so I left without eating.
I ate breakfast in Coleman along with some truckers.
As I rode, I was continually appalled by the blight on the environment that
development was leaving. I passed a saw mill and an adjoining plant (probably
producing something like oriented strand board or plywood).
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I then reached the area of the Frank Slide. This was one of those
sleeping giants as far as museums go. I'd never heard of the Frank Slide,
but the folks at the Inn had suggested I stop at the museum. It was well
worth the $4 entry fee.
Around the turn of the Century, high quality coal was discovered at Frank,
Alberta in the Crowsnest area. The area was touted as another Pittsburgh.
The mine on Turtle Mountain was producing and growth was fantastic. Families
moved in from all over Europe for mine jobs. Then on April 29, 1903 at 4:10
AM, 62 million tons of limestone (the whole east face of the mountain) came
crashing down on the town of Frank, killing about 70 people. The mountain
was never stable (the Indians called it "mountain that moves"
even before the white men mined it), but the coal mining activity undermined
even what little stability there was and disaster resulted. The volume of
rock that fell and how far it "flowed" in 90 seconds -- 1.2 square
miles -- is hard to convey. It was so sunny that most of my photos failed.
This was a massive sight.
Every half-hour, the Frank Slide Interpretive Center puts on
an award-winning multimedia show explaining the slide and conveying some
of the history of the era, including the diverse interests of labor and
management. This was well worth seeing.
After leaving Frank, I saw evidence of other closed mines and references
to other mining disasters in the area.
Then suddenly, I was no longer in the mountains. I was on the
range; in the grassy foothills of southern Alberta fighting headwinds.
 wide angle |
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Wind must be a regular factor in life around here. Obviously,
a particularly windy place is chosen for a major wind turbine farm: the
Cowley Ridge Wind Electric Project.
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I knew I was in for wind trouble when I went on to see another
sign.
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It was still in the 90's (f), and fighting against the wind without
any shade, I was hot and tired when I arrived in Pincher Creek around 3:00,
so decided not to continue on as planned to Waterton National Park.
In fact, I decided to take a rest day and get the website updated.
56 miles.
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997