Blairmore is a community in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

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. Blairmore is the principal commercial centre of Crowsnest Pass.

History

Originally a

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

stop called Tenth Siding or The Springs (for the cold sulphur spring to the east), the settlement was renamed Blairmore in November 1898 and it got a post office the following year. A ten-year dispute over land ownership between the CPR station agent and the section foreman stunted early development. The community was incorporated as the Village of Blairmore on September 3, 1901. Blairmore's principal industry was lumber and, after 1907, coal. Other industries soon followed. Blairmore incorporated as a town on September 29, 1911. With the declining fortunes of the nearby community of

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

, Blairmore soon became the region's economic centre. The

Greenhill mine The Greenhill Mine was a coal mine north of Blairmore, Alberta, Canada. History Started by the West Canadian Collieries in 1913, the mining site became the mainstay of Blairmore. The tipple of the mine, located on the side of Bluff Mountain, is n ...

, located just north of Blairmore, became the mainstay of the community until its closure in 1957. One of the town's early residemts was

Emilio Picariello Emilio Picariello (, ; also known as Emileo PicarielloGray 62 and Emil Picariello,Foster 83 1875Anderson 43 or 1879Brennan 51 – May 2, 1923) was an Italian-Canadian bootlegger and convicted murderer, who was hanged at Fort Saskatchewan in 1923 ...

(1875 – 1923). "Emperor Pic" settled in Blairmore in 1918 and operated several businesses, but also illegally imported alcohol from nearby

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

during

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. Picariello and

Florence Lassandro Florence Lassandro (; born Filumena Costanzo ; 1900 – May 2, 1923) was an Italian-Canadian bootlegger who was the only woman to be hanged in Alberta. Early life Lassandro was born in Cosenza, Italy, immigrating with her family to Canada in 1 ...

were hanged in 1923 after the shooting death of

Alberta Provincial Police The Alberta Provincial Police (APP) was the provincial police service for the province of Alberta, Canada from 1917 to 1932. The APP was formed as a result of the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) leaving the prairie provinces during the ...

constable Steve Lawson in 1922. Like many Canadian industrial towns in the 1930s, Blairmore had some sympathies with

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. Canada's first Communist town council and school board were elected in Blairmore in 1933, which reformed the tax system, and refused to observe

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

as an Imperialist holiday and honoured the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

instead. A street was named after the leader of the

Communist Party of Canada The Communist Party of Canada (french: Parti communiste du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's can ...

Tim Buck Timothy Buck (January 6, 1891 – March 11, 1973) was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada (known as the Labor-Progressive Party from 1943 to 1959) from 1929 until 1962. Together with Ernst Thälmann of Germany, Maurice Tho ...

, a decision that was reversed by the next town council. On November 3, 1978, the

Government of Alberta The government of Alberta (french: gouvernement de l'Alberta) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Alberta. As a constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor—i ...

passed the ''Crowsnest Pass Municipal Unification Act'', which led to the formal

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

of the Town of Blairmore with the Village of

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

, the Town of Coleman, the Village of Frank, and Improvement District (ID) No. 5 on January 1, 1979.

Canadian Militia

From 1946 to 1965, Blairmore was home to Canadian Militia units associated with the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers. From 1946 to 1950, No. 22 Armoured Workshop existed prior to being renamed as a Troop of 39 Technical Squadron (1950-1954) and eventually the 31st Technical Squadron (1954-1965). During this time, the Squadron had a band which regularly paraded within the town as well as
535 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps
which existed until 1971.

Geography

Blairmore is located in southwest Alberta in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

. It is approximately west of

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 Alberta municipal censuses, 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

on Highway 3 (Crowsnest Highway) and approximately east of the

border. Fellow Crowsnest Pass communities Frank and Coleman are to the east and to the west respectively.

Geology

Volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic r ...

s in the Blairmore area are related to the

Crowsnest Formation The Crowsnest Formation, also called the Crowsnest Volcanics, is a geological formation in southwestern Alberta, Canada, on the southwestern margin of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It was named for the Crowsnest Pass near Coleman, Alberta. ...

. As a geological unit, the volcanics received some attention in the late 1980s when geologists stated they had found trace amounts of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in certain units of the volcanics.Mineral Assessment Report 20060025 - A report for Assessment in reference to Metallic and Industrial Minerals Permit 9304091032

Blairmorite Blairmorite is a very rare porphyritic volcanic rock named after the community of Blairmore in southwestern Alberta, Canada.Johannsen, A. 1933. A descriptive petrography of the igneous rocks, Appendix III, p. 244. Univ. of Chicago Press. It is ch ...

, a rare volcanic rock of the Crowsnest Formation, is named after Blairmore.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population, the urban

population centre In demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to different geogr ...

of Blairmore, as delineated by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, recorded a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. As a population centre in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by

, Blairmore recorded a population of 1,545 living in 731 of its 886 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 1,521. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

References