Five Massive Canadian Landslides That Changed the Landscape

Like other countries through out the world Canada also has it fair share of devastation and natural disasters. Here in Canada tornados and hurricanes are not as much of a problem as in other countries but instead many of our natural disasters involve ice, rain and earthquakes which usually cause or triggers deadly landslides.

Here’s my list of only five massive Canadian landslides that changed some peoples lives and killed others. Some have been forgotten about and others will always remain in the mind of locals or families who lost loved ones.

Frank Landslide, Alberta

This could easily be called one of Canada’s worst landslides if not the worst natural disaster in Canadian history.

Calgary, Alberta is home to some of the most remote and beautiful towns left in Canada and in 1903 the town of Frank was one of these towns. Frank was a small mining town located in basically a valley of mountains and cliffs. Nearby lurking over the town is the infamous Turtle Mountain the site of one of Canada’s worst landslides.

The story goes in 1901 an excavation began to sink a mine shaft into the bowels of Turtle Mountain in order to be able to mine the massive coal deposits through out the mountain. By October of the following year there was already over 2,300 feet of tunnels along the vein of the coal. Soon afterwards residents and area miners started to noticed tremors and especially in the early morning hours but they just went on with their lives.

By 1903, the mine was very productive and had virtually become a “Self-Operating” meaning all the miners had to do was shovel the coal because it was basically falling from the ceiling. Little did the miners and residents know that life as they knew it was about to take a drastic change.

On the early morning of April 29, 1903 Turtle Mountain which was the site of the town’s prosperity for 2 years became the site of disaster when pretty much half of mountain slid down over a 2 km distance burying miners and residents and destroying half the town. Two minutes later everything laid in silence until people started realizing what had happen. In less then 100 seconds the town had been virtually wiped out and covered with tons of limestone boulders.

When a few days had passed and all survivors had been rescued the real damage was apparent. A total of 76 people had been buried alive under tons of rock and three quarter of the homes in Frank Town had been destroyed along with roads, train tracks and bridges.