Crowsnest Pass - History

History

  • Crowsnest Pass is the richest archaeological zone in the Canadian Rockies. The oldest relics are stone tools found on a rock ridge outside Frank, Alberta, from the Clovis culture, 11,000 years before present. Other sites include chert quarries on the Livingstone ridge dating back to 1000 BC.
  • 1800: Members of David Thompson expedition enter the pass.
  • ca. 1850: Crow Indians dispersed from area by Blackfoot Confederacy.
  • 1860, 1873: Michael Phillips (Hudson's Bay Company) traverses pass, reports coal deposits.
  • 1881: first surveys by Canadian Pacific Railway.
  • 1897: CPR enters into farm export subsidy agreement for freight rates in exchange for financing of railway line between Lethbridge, Alberta, and Nelson, BC. Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company commences operations in British Columbia.
  • 1898: CPR opens the railway line, 10th siding (later Blairmore, Alberta) established. Settlement of Fernie, British Columbia, established.
  • 1900: the Frank Mine opens and the new town of Frank, Alberta, is established. Other coal mines and towns spring up between 1900 and 1919.
  • 1902: explosion at Coal Creek mine kills 128 men.
  • 1903: the cataclysmic Frank Slide occurs on the north slope of Turtle Mountain; 82 million tonnes of limestone crash down and partially bury the town of Frank, killing approximately 70 of the town's 600 residents.
  • 1904: Fernie, British Columbia, incorporates.
  • 1908: forest fire destroys Fernie (pop: 6000), which soon rebuilds.
  • 1914: an explosion in the mine at Hillcrest kills 189 men, Canada's worst mine disaster.
  • 1916–1923: Prohibition in Alberta; "rum-running" across the provincial boundary.
  • 1920: Train robbery and shootout at Bellevue Cafe.
  • 1923: 'Emperor Pic’ (Emilio Picariello) and Florence Lassandro hanged for shooting a police constable; first woman hanged in Alberta.
  • 1932: Highway 3 built as a Great Depression project.
  • 1966: Communities of Michel, Natal, and Sparwood amalgamate into the District Municipality of Sparwood, British Columbia.
  • 1979: Communities of Coleman, Blairmore, Bellevue, Hillcrest, and Frank amalgamate to form the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.

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