Crowsnest Pass
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- For the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, please see Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
The Crowsnest Pass, sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass or simply The Crow, (elevation 1,358 m) is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border.
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Geography
The pass is located in southeast British Columbia and southwest Alberta, and is the southernmost rail and highway route through the Canadian Rockies and the lowest elevation mountain pass in Canada south of the Yellowhead Pass (1,130 m); the other major passes, which are higher, being Kicking Horse Pass (1,640 m), Howse Pass (1,530 m) and Vermillion Pass.
Crowsnest Pass comprises a valley running east-west through Crowsnest Ridge. The Crowsnest River flows east from Crowsnest Lake, eventually draining into the Oldman River on the Alberta side. Summit Lake on the British Columbia side drains into the Elk River, which eventually feeds into the Kootenai and Kootenay Rivers, and finally into the Columbia River.
Transportation
The Canadian Pacific Railway built a line from Lethbridge, Alberta to Nelson, British Columbia through the Crowsnest Pass, opening in 1897. This line was built to develop coal deposits in the Elk River valley and help to assert Canadian (and CPR) sovereignty in an area that U.S. railroads were beginning to build into. CPR sought and received construction funding from the federal government, subject to a freight subsidy arrangement for prairie farm exports which came to be called the "Crow's Nest Pass Agreement".
"The Crow Rate", as the subsidy agreement came to be referred to, was eventually extended from CPR's Crownest Pass railway line to apply to all railway lines in western Canada, regardless of corporate ownership or geography, creating artificially low freight rates for grain shipments through the Great Lakes ports. The rate also correspondingly limited industrial growth in the western provinces as it was cheaper to produce items in eastern Canada and ship them west under The Crow Rate. This subsidy was finally abolished in 1995.
The Crowsnest Highway operates as Highway 3 in both provinces and runs through the pass parallel to the CPR line, as does an oil pipeline.
Natural resources
The Crowsnest Pass area on both sides of the provincial boundary is rich in coal deposits, which were quickly developed after completion of the rail line. All of the mines on the Alberta side were closed throughout the 20th century as cheaper and safer open-pit mines opened on the British Columbia side of the pass. Some logging and oil and gas exploitation also occurs in the area, and a sulphur plant has been in operation there for several years. Tourism based on the natural and historical resources of the area remains underdeveloped.
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 from the Clovis culture, 11,000 years bp. Other sites include chert quarries on the Livingstone ridge dating back to 1000 BC.
- 1800 - Members of David Thompson expedition enter the pass.
- 1845 - Father DeSmet, a Jesuit priest, sees coal.
- ca. 1850 - Crow indians dispersed from area by Blackfoot Confederacy.
- 1860, 1873 - Michael Phillips (Hudson 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, AB and Nelson, BC.
- 1898 - CPR opens the railway line, 10th siding (later Blairmore) established.
- 1900 - the first coal mine opens and the new town of Frank is established. Other coal mines and towns spring up between 1900 - 1919.
- 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.
- 1914 - an explosion in the mine at Hillcrest killed 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’ and Florence Lossandro hung for shooting a police constable; first woman hanged in Alberta.
- 1932 - Highway 3 built as a Great Depression project.
- 1979 - Communities of Coleman, Blairmore, Bellevue, Hillcrest, and Frank amalgamate to form the Municipality of Crownest Pass, Alberta. The British Columbia side of the pass remains unamalgamated.
References
Crowsnest and its People Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979.