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- Aug 02 2023 - Frank Slide Disaster Site
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- As we left Waterton Lakes National
Park, we drove past an area where they have a herd of bison,
and I was able to get some great photos of them with wildflowers
in foreground and the Rocky Mountains in the background. Very
nice.
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- En route to Banff, we stopped at a
little piece of Canadian history that I knew nothing about until
we visited the site in person. It was very powerful to see it
myself.
The Frank Slide disaster, a tragic and catastrophic event, occurred
on April 29, 1903, in the town of Frank, Alberta. The coal-mining
town faced an unimaginable calamity when an enormous portion
of Turtle Mountain suddenly dislodged and cascaded down its slopes,
burying a significant part of the town under millions of tons
of rock and debris. The slide, triggered by a combination of
geological factors, including the mountain's unstable structure,
the melting of an ancient glacier, and significant coal mining,
resulted in the loss of around 70 lives and buried much of the
town.
In the aftermath of the disaster, efforts were made to recover
and rebuild the town, but almost all traces of it are gone now.
The incident also spurred greater awareness and research into
the understanding of landslides and their potential triggers.
Today, the Frank Slide remains a poignant historical site.
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