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Bellevue Underground Mine Tour | Burmis tree | Hillcrest Mine Disaster and Memorial Cemetery | Leitch Collieries
Frank Slide and Memorial Grave | Frank Slide Interpretive Centre | Crowsnest Art Gallery
Crowsnest Museum |
Hillcrest minE Disaster and memorial cemetery
Details | History Located in the Municipality of the Crowsnest Pass - Canada's worst mining disaster. 189 coal miners were killed in an underground explosion here on June 19, 1914. Many of the miners were buried in a mass gravesite at the cemetery. In 2000, a National Monument was erected to commemorate the many mining disasters across Canada. Follow signs off Highway 3 to view the cemetery where most of the miners were buried.
Hillcrest
Crowsnest Pass, Alberta,
Canada |
DetailsNo charge. | Type of Attraction:
Historic attraction |
HistoryOn the morning of June 19, 1914; 237 mineworkers of the Hillcrest Collieries Company started the mile long hike up the trail to begin work in the mine.
At 9:30 a.m. thunderous explosions ripped through the tunnels. Canada's worst mine disaster claimed the lives of 189 men. Sadly, only 46 men who entered the mine that day were rescued. No one knows for sure what triggered the blasts. Perhaps a rock fall generated sparks, igniting methane gas and causing the coal dust to explode. Today visitors can visit the Hillcrest Cemetery and see the three mass graves and other markers which identify victims of the 1914 Hillcrest explosion.
For more information contact the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre at (403) 562-7388 or fax (403) 562-8635. |
