An image captured by Blairmore photographer Thomas Gushul in 1918 shows the buildings pretty well still intact. The trail is well-maintained but receives no shade so proper sun protection is recommended. Budd and W.M. Then tragedy. Sustained by its Belgian and French markets, WCC weathered the downturn at the end of the Great War despite a four month long Pass-wide strike in 1919. From information that he gleaned from the Times, condensed and submitted to the editorial staff of Crowsnest and its people, Alrik Tiberg reports that at their August, 1905, meeting, the Village rate-payers had permitted The Pass Light and Water Company to erect a pole line and offer electricity to Blairmores residents. Even the Prez is utilitarian in dcor, one of its window panes vibrating excitedly as a rare freight train drags its weight through the vacant yards a block south. Forestry has long been important to this region, with outfits like the Gibson Sawmill working in York Creek and the Carbondale Lumber Company in McGillivray Creek providing alternative employment in the early days. Though the N-WT was granted an elected legislative assembly in 1888, it had not the power to conduct a plebiscite of the Territorial citizenry under provisions of the Canada Temperance Act of 1876 to determine if efforts to maintain total prohibition were to be continued, or if some system of licensing the sale of liquor should be introduced. In 1949 Blairmore, centrally located in the east Pass, won the new hospital. FCC carried on business until more fires underground and a mighty gas explosion levelled much of its surface plant in 1917. Alexander Leitch, his wife Rosemary, and their four little boys died, but all three of their daughters, Jesse, May, and Marion survived, the latter being the miracle baby who was variously reported found crying piteously in her dead mothers arms, or on a bed of hay many metres from the shattered remains of her home, or on top of an enormous boulder furlongs away. 1 well blew in. The Granby River coal showing quickly disappointed expectations and, eager to supply Granby Consolidated with a secure source of fuel, International had the property evaluated by G.S. After the Big Strike of 1911, WCC resumed mining at Lille, but with decreasing enthusiasm. Watson. It complements the arsenal of existing equipment that is on the mountain to measure incremental movements in the rock mass. The Montral investments inspired private construction in the settlement as well, with a row of two-storey homes built in 1911. Coming in from the west, just as it turns into 20th Avenue, the Highway crosses the gulch of McGillivray Creek on a fill. They died running, their demise witnessed by the CP men who reversed their engine and sped away from the maelstrom. Eventually 104 ovens were rebuilt and brought back into production with doors enlarged to accommodate a mechanical puller/leveller. Although a new powerhouse was built to shelter larger boilers in 1911, Blairmore South ultimately disappointed WCC which quit mining it in 1914. Having already purchased the charter of the BCS and its attendant provincial grants from The British Columbia Coal, Petroleum and Mineral Company, the CPR broke ground on this, the Crows Nest Line (CNL), at Lethbridge on July 14th, 1897. The product proved satisfactory. 3 crosses the Crowsnest River on a little pre-stressed concrete span which quakes in sympathy when a freight train rattles the bones of its neighbouring railroad bridge about two spits away up-stream. The Sartoris familys Crows Nest Bottling Works began a ten year run of capping soft drinks around 1935, around the time that Meadow Sweet Dairy began operations. Follow the signs to Lundbreck Falls where the Crowsnest River takes a 12 m (39 ft) tumble to the canyon below. The seam was faulted and chasing it soon drained the companys meagre resources. Cruise along this scenic highway in B.C. The. Never again will Hillcrest be so blessed. Despite the Agreement a constant undercurrent of suspicion and confrontation continued to define Labours relationship with Management in the east Pass. Follow the signs to Lundbreck Falls where the Crowsnest River takes a 12 m (39 ft) tumble to the canyon below. From 1912 the pockets of bad coal that had occasionally been encountered in Lilles seams became common phenomena, and facing a drastically shrinking profit margin thanks to increased labour costs, difficulty refinancing its debts in a period of financial uncertainty, and a softening coal market, WCC abandoned the mine in 1912 and began divesting itself of the 200,000 Gold Creek acres that it had acquired. However, with War in control of the Economy, demands strengthened and in 1944 WCC began developing its property south on Byron Creek, opening up its Adanac Mine in 1945. To the south of the Highway is the sullen concrete-faced Phillips Cable, Limited, building, officially opened on May 1st of 1965, part of an economic diversification plan to bring work to the Trough. The companys WCCs management chose the bleak years following the Great War to consolidate their surface plant and at the same time invest heavily in the social side of their business. The health of the local logging industry was adversely affected when the voracious mountain pine beetle began chewing its way into regional forests in the 1970s. Glaciation and weathering removed the softer shales from above the limestone, but the limestone, in turn, protected the younger shales upon which it rested from the same fate. The Post Office finally closed in 1938, officially ushering Passburg into the realm of memory. Frewin was soon in Bellevue where he met his fellow APP constable, F.W.E. He apparently bought some properties east of Bellevue to position his family to profit from the coming coal rush. Gushul, from earliest times until his death in May of 1962, was the premier photographer of the Pass and no historically-minded traveller can avoid seeing samples of his work in books, pamphlets and museums throughout the Crowsnest region. Water was served by a system owned by Mr. Goyette, owner of the local furniture store. Blairmore boomed and its 231 officially counted residents felt confident enough in their settlements future to declare it a Village on September 3rd of 1901. The Age of Oil had arrived in Alberta. By the time the plan of the City of Blairmore was registered on August 28th of 1902 the matter was on its way to court. Near the fork a short road branches right and leads down to the Hillcrest graveyard with its massive black marble monument dedicated to Miners who have lost their lives underground, a little plaque commemorating each deadly event in the entire Pass. Come the end of 1903 Inspector Davidson of the RN-WMPs Pincher Creek detachment would report that every bit of the hustle and bustle for which Frank was known before the Slide had been recovered. The discord would make the next eight months very tough. Kean, himself, quit in 1881 to go to work for the CPR for two years before taking the job of managing the North Western Coal and Navigation Companys lumber mill at what is now Lethbridge. Naturally, the companies rejected this suggestion and soon after the Act was legislated, tools went down. The trail is very easy to follow as it is a wide gravel road leading to the top of the ridge. Dyer and his cohorts incorporated the International Coal and Coke Company, Limited, in the State of Washington on April 28th, 1902, capitalizing it to $3 millions in one dollar shares. 40km (25mi) later, south of Yahk, Highway 95 merges onto the Crowsnest Highway. Train Hold-up at Sentinel, Beneath the Overpass the diagonally orientated tracks of the CPR head off down the Trough. Dr. Duncan McKenzie arrived possibly in late 1904 and by 1905 had had a little hospital built next to his house overlooking the mine works. The little collection of shacks wherein the miners lived was called McGillivrays Hill. Meanwhile, across the Tracks, stretching up into York Creek on the south side of the Trough, a 4500-acre coal property had been staked under the name of Dennison Collieries. It wasnt, however, until the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company began its search for an alternative coal source for its expanding plant at Grand Forks, B.C, that Coleman got its start. The Journal struggled along through several ownerships until the death of Thomas Holstead, proprietor and publisher, in September of 1970. See all region register. In 1907, perhaps reflecting a loss of faith in finding good quality coal in the Gold Creek basin, WCC removed its head office from Lille to Blairmore. Any general slowdown in business, as happened in 1908 and again at the onset of World War One, caused the B.C. Unlike MCC, International had made money during the War and in 1948 its directors had begun a program of capital investment in their works. The company, however, needed every hand it could muster to meet the demands for coal, and convinced the UMWA to send their men back to work. On August7, 1919, Captain Ernest Hoy flew a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" through Crowsnest Pass, the first flight across the Canadian Rockies. In 1932, in concert with B.C., the Red finally became the No. The property was owned by one J.C. Drewry. Though its economy, too, was straitened, Blairmore became the envy of the Trough, riding relatively high on the back of government spending. Though there was plenty of coal, there were few customers relative to the number of competitors. Others, like engine oiler Joe Dobeck, a mere 600 feet away from the outriding boulders, felt the concussion of the trapped air being expelled from the mass with the sound of a freight train passing close, but saw nothing in the darkness. Though early tests had assured Leitch that the coal in No. Reflecting the goals enshrined in the companys name, an experimental battery of six beehive coke ovens was built at the foot of the Mountain, the first of 240 that Hank Frank had announced were to diversify C-AC&Cs offerings. Franks first endeavour at Burmis, and through them may have heard of the carboniferous riches in the vaults of Turtle Mountain. Amazingly, all the workers survived, gathered together and headed toward the mines mouth. Built in 1921 by Fred Wolstenholme for West Canadian Collieries, it was operated as a company guest house-slash-hotel until sold into private hands in 1945. Perceiving a rising demand for coke, in 1911 CCC announced that it would build a battery of 50 Solvay retort-type ovens, from which the volatile gases would be captured to fire the boilers in the companys powerhouse. It was incorporated as a Village under the jurisdiction of the N-WT government on February 22, 1904. In 1887 the post was substantially expanded. By the time that its postal bureau opened on August 1, 1901, the 300 or so residents of the little hamlet of Frank could send their kids to schoollikely at someones cabin,buy necessities in a few tent stores down on Dominion Avenue, frequent a saloon or two, and keep track of all the local doings courtesy the Frank Sentinel. Though the agreed wage for a qualified miner at the face was set at an acceptable $3.65 per day, many other issues remained unresolved. Hiding from observers in a yard full of evergreens, it is impressive only because it is the largest residence in a settlement full of miners cottages. As the companies were engaged in cut-throat competition amongst themselves, this front was not entirely successful. Thereafter people were disinclined to live in the shadow of Turtle Mountain and pressure was put upon Blairmore to accommodate the refugees as well as the increasing numbers of pioneers who came to the Trough to earn their fortunes. The CPR began to cut back its orders, preferring to buy from CNP Coal at Michel and Fernie, B.C., and from International Coal and Coke and McGillivray Creek Coal and Coke west up the Trough at Coleman. Dr. G.B. The Municipality, Today, tourism and a bit of logging are the only things which sustain folks in the east Pass. The Crowsnest Highway is the southernmost of the highway connections between the central prairies of Canada and the ports on the Pacific. A 150 kW generator driven by a 300 horse-power steam engine powered by four boilers was fitted into the powerhouse. On the inside of the curve is the Municipality of Crowsnest Passs west-bound welcoming display; on the outside the scenic side road from Hillcrest joins. Appreciating the routes utility to smugglers and rustlers, the N-WM Police had built a crude outpost on the shore of Crowsnest Lake in 1886, improving the facility when the Railway came through in 1897 and posting a six-man detachment under an inspector until 1900. The 1920 and 30s were a struggle for the inhabitants of Hillcrest, as they were for the rest of the Pass communities, indeed the entire Country, Continent and World. Never the best maintained abodes, they, and the lack of a wash-house at the mine works, kept the company and its supposedly placid Euro-workers in tooth gnashing disagreement for years. When the coal seam petered out and the mine reached the end of its working life, these pillars were removed beginning at the farthest edges of the mine, allowing the roof to cave in behind the retreating workers. With doors at either end, the ovens were nestled transversely on the wharf and measured ten metres long by two metres high and increased in width from 56 centimetres on one end to 61cm on the discharge end. The first segment between the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5A is locally known as the Hope-Princeton Highway, and passes by the site of the Hope Slide. It was a bold thing to do, walking into town like that; everybody was keeping an eye out for them. Enraged, strikers denounced the scabs and attacked their working neighbours. A pedestrian bridge was suspended across the Crowsnest to bring Hillcrest and its working mine within easy walking distance. Welcome to Sunny Alberta reads the first sign. In early 1911 ranger George Ritchie was posted to Coleman to establish the boundaries of the Forest and begin building a network of trails and overnight cabins throughout the area to accommodate patrols. That summer a wild fire engulfed thousands of trees and to cap off a bad year, on August 23rd the Home Bank of Canada declared insolvency and closed, wiping out the school districts savings along with those of countless families all through the Crowsnest Pass and beyond. To get to the trailhead for Turtle Mountain turn onto 133rd Street in Blairmore from Highway 3. Early in 1951 Internationals directors offered $300,000 for McGillivray, lock, stock and barrel. Canadian Prohibitionists became outraged by the excesses, and inspired by the National Womens Christian Temperance Union, channelled into the Territories the tsunami of anti-alcohol sentiment that was breaking over the entire Continent. The following year CCL contracted Mannixs subsidiary, the Loram Group, to mine Tent Mountain. 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