Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
Encyclopedia
The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is a specialized municipality
Specialized municipalities of Alberta
A specialized municipality is a type of municipal status used in the Canadian Province of Alberta. Alberta specialized municipalities are unique local governments that can be formed without resorting to special acts of Alberta's legislature...
located in the Crowsnest Pass
Crowsnest Pass
Crowsnest Pass is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border.-Geography:...
of the Rocky Mountains in southwest Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The municipality formed as a result of the amalgamation of five municipalities – the Village of Bellevue
Bellevue, Alberta
Bellevue is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a village prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass....
, the Town of Blairmore
Blairmore, Alberta
Blairmore is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a town prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass...
, Town of Coleman
Coleman, Alberta
Coleman is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a town prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass....
, the Village of Frank
Frank, Alberta
Frank is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a village prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass....
and Improvement District No. 5 (which included the Hamlet of Hillcrest
Hillcrest, Alberta
Hillcrest, also known as Hillcrest Mines, is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was once a hamlet under the jurisdiction of Improvement District No. 5 prior to 1979 when the former I.D. No...
) – on January 1, 1979. Today, Blairmore and Coleman remain the two largest communities while Frank is the smallest. Crowsnest, Passburg and Sentinel (Sentry) are other former communities (abandoned, or much reduced) within the municipality's boundaries.
History
The municipality owes its existence to coal mining, the area's primary industry since the first mine opened in 1900. Its ethnic and cultural diversity comes from the many European and other immigrants attracted to the area by the mines. Through the years coal mining suffered from fluctuating coal prices, bitter strikes, and underground accidents, and all the mines on the Alberta side closed throughout the 20th century as cheaper, safer open-pit mines opened on the British Columbia side of the pass. There is an operating coal mine just across the B.C. border in SparwoodSparwood, British Columbia
-Newspapers:* Fernie Free Press - Weekly Paper* Elk Valley Herald - Weekly Paper* Kootenay News Advertiser - Weekly Paper* The Valley - Weekly Paper* Fernie Fix - Monthly Glossy Magazine* Black Rock News - Semimonthly-Radio stations:...
which continues to provide significant employment for the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.
Crowsnest Pass is known for tragedy. In 1903 the tip of Turtle Mountain broke loose and decimated part of the Village of Frank (the Frank Slide
Frank Slide
The Frank Slide is a natural landslide feature in the southern Rocky Mountains of Canada, and a significant historical event in western Canada.Frank, Alberta is a coal mining town in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta...
). In 1914, the Hillcrest mine disaster
Hillcrest mine disaster
The Hillcrest mine disaster, the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history, occurred at Hillcrest, Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass region of western Canada, on Friday June 19, 1914. At the time it was the world's third worst mine disaster....
occurred in the Hillcrest Mine, killing 189 men. Serious spring floods occurred in 1923 and 1942. Periodic forest fires have swept the valley, including one in the summer of 2003 that threatened the entire municipality.
The area was a centre for "rum-running" during the prohibition of 1916 - 1923, when liquor was illegally brought across the provincial border from British Columbia. This legacy is celebrated each July during Rum-Runner Days, which includes a parade, many civic and sporting events, and a fireworks display called Thunder In the Valley that attracts tens of thousands of visitors from nearby communities.
Today, the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass has much to offer visitors. In addition to its spectacular natural setting, the municipality is rich in human history, and tourism promises to become a significant industry.
Points of interest
Within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass one can find the Frank SlideFrank Slide
The Frank Slide is a natural landslide feature in the southern Rocky Mountains of Canada, and a significant historical event in western Canada.Frank, Alberta is a coal mining town in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta...
Interpretive Centre, an interpretive display at Leitch Collieries Provincial Historic Site, underground tours of the Bellevue Mine Provincial Historic Site, and the Crowsnest Museum in downtown Coleman where pamphlets for self-guided historical driving tours of the municipality are also available. The area offers hiking and fishing in the summer, and in winter snowmobiling, a downhill ski hill, and a groomed cross-country ski area, and is about 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) from major ski hills at both Fernie Alpine Resort
Fernie Alpine Resort
Fernie Alpine Resort is a ski resort, located on Lizard Range, near the town of Fernie, British Columbia in Canada. It is known particularly for its high annual snowfall, reportedly the highest of any resort in the Canadian Rockies, and for its powder skiing...
and Castle Mountain Resort
Castle Mountain Resort
Castle Mountain is a ski resort located in the Westcastle Valley of southwest Alberta, Canada in the Rocky Mountains. It is approximately from Calgary and the Calgary International Airport; from Lethbridge; and west of Pincher Creek...
.
Demographics
In 2006, Crowsnest Pass had a population of 5,749 living in 3,004 dwellingsHouse
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
, an 8.2% decrease from 2001. The municipality has a land area of 373.07 km² (144 sq mi) and a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
of 15.4 /km2.
In 2001, the population of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass was 6,262.
Trivia
- Blairmore elected Canada's first Communist town council under mayor Bill Knight during the Great DepressionGreat DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. (See Blairmore, AlbertaBlairmore, AlbertaBlairmore is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a town prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass...
for more information) - Crowsnest Pass was the site of the last train robbery in Canada (1920).
- Alberta's first female mayor, Clemence Jepson (1914-2010), was elected in Bellevue in November 1963.
- The gravy recipe for Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken was developed here.
- The frontier town in DisneyWalt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's 1985 film The Journey of Natty GannThe Journey of Natty GannThe Journey of Natty Gann is a 1985 American film directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released by Buena Vista Pictures.-Plot:Set in 1935, the movie tells the story of a young woman, Natty Gann...
was shot here.