The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is a specialized municipality in southwest Alberta, Canada. Within 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 ...

adjacent to the eponymous

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, french: link=no, col du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass i ...

, the municipality formed as a result of the 1979 amalgamation of five municipalities – 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 Blairmore, the Town of Coleman, the Village 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 ...

, and Improvement District No. 5, which included the Hamlet of Hillcrest and numerous other unincorporated communities.

History

The communities in Crowsnest Pass owe their existence to coal mining. The first coal mine in the area 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. All the mines on the Alberta side of the pass closed throughout the 20th century as cheaper with the opening of safer open-pit mines on the British Columbia side of the pass. An operating coal mine just across the British Columbia boundary in

Sparwood Sparwood is a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the second-largest community on the Elk River. Located approximately 30 kilometres from Fernie, the District Municipality of Sparwood has approximately 4,2 ...

continues to provide employment for residents living in 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 event was heralded as the Frank Slide). In 1914, the

Hillcrest mine disaster The Hillcrest mine disaster, the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history, occurred at Hillcrest, Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass region, on June 19, 1914, 9:30 am. The disaster was reported by several news outlets including the ''Calgar ...

occurred near Hillcrest, killing 189 people. 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 prohibition, from 1916 to 1923, when liquor was illegally brought across the provincial boundary from British Columbia. The legacy is celebrated at the restored

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 Fi ...

Barracks, which is now an interpretive centre. 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 Bellevue, Blairmore, Coleman, Frank, and Improvement District (ID) No. 5 on January 1, 1979. The new municipality was granted town status and named the ''Municipality of Crowsnest Pass''. A review of the amalgamation in 1983 concluded that the unification led to improved municipal services and housing within the new municipality. In the mid-1990s, the adjacent ID No. 6 was carved up with portions going to the MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 on December 31, 1994, the MD of Ranchland No. 66 on January 1, 1995, and ID No. 40 on December 31, 1995. Crowsnest Pass then amalgamated with the remainder of ID No. 6 on January 1, 1996, while ID No. 40 was absorbed by the MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 on the same date. The amalgamated municipality retained the name ''Municipality of Crowsnest Pass'' and its town status. It subsequently became a specialized municipality on January 16, 2008. The purpose of the status change was to enable membership in the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties for increased alignment with its neighbouring rural municipalities.

Geography

The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is in the southwest portion of the province of Alberta. It borders the province of

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, ...

to the west, the Municipal District (MD) of Ranchland No. 66 to the north, and the MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 to the east and south. The

Crowsnest River The Crowsnest River is a tributary to the Oldman River in southwestern Alberta, Canada. Location From its source in Crowsnest Lake at an elevation of about in the Canadian Rockies, Crowsnest River meanders eastward through the Municipality ...

, which originates from Crowsnest Lake, meanders eastward through the municipality. Parts of the

Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve The Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve is a tract of land owned by the government of Canadian province of Alberta (called "Crown land") along the eastern slopes and foothills of the Albertan section of the Canadian Rockies. It is a long strip of land ...

are in the northwest and southern portions of the municipality.

Communities and localities

The following

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

are the former municipalities that comprise the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass. ;Former

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

* Blairmore * Coleman ;Former

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

;Former improvement districts *Improvement District No. 5 (part) *Improvement District No. 6 (part) The following localities are located within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass. ;Localities *Crowsnest *East Kootenay *Hazell * Hillcrest or Hillcrest Mines *Savanna *Sentinel (also known as Sentry Siding) The following are the unincorporated places that were in Improvement District No. 5 prior to the amalgamation that formed the municipality of Crownsest Pass. *Carbondale *Crowsnest Lake *East Coleman *Grafton *Hazell *Hillcrest *Sentinel *West Side Riverbottom *Willow Creek

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted 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 ...

, the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass had a population of 5,695 living in 2,759 of its 3,403 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 5,589. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass had a population of 5,589 living in 2,567 of its 3,225 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 5,565. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Attractions

The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is home to parts of the

Castle Provincial Park Castle Provincial Park is a provincial park in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located within the Municipal District of Pincher Creek No. 9 south of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, northwest of Waterton Lakes National Park and west of the ...

in the southeast and the

Castle Wildland Provincial Park Castle Provincial Park is a provincial park in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located within the Municipal District of Pincher Creek No. 9 west of the Town of Pincher Creek, sharing a northern boundary with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, ...

in the southwest. Within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, one can find the

Frank Slide The Frank Slide was a massive rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank in the District of Alberta of the North-West Territories,The province of Alberta was not created until September 1905, more than two years after the slide. ...

Interpretive Centre (Provincial Historic Site), an interpretive display at

Leitch Collieries Passburg is a ghost town in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta, Canada that was formerly a coal mining community. It is on Highway 3 (the Crowsnest Highway) approximately west of Lethbridge and southeast of Bellevue. Hi ...

(Provincial Historic Site) near the former Passburg townsite, underground tours of the Bellevue Mine (Provincial Historic Resource), interpretive signs at the Hillcrest Cemetery (Provincial Historic Resource) and both the Crowsnest Museum and Alberta Provincial Police Barracks interpretive centre within Coleman National Historic Site. Pamphlets for self-guided historical walking and driving tours are available throughout the municipality. The area offers hiking, fishing and mountain-biking in the summer, and in winter snowmobiling, a downhill ski hill (Pass PowderKeg), and a groomed cross-country ski area, and is about from major ski hills at both

Fernie Alpine Resort Fernie Alpine Resort is a ski resort, located on Lizard Range, near the town of Fernie, British Columbia in Canada. The resort also operates a mountain bike park, hiking, guided hikes, and sightseeing in the summer months. The resort has 10 l ...

and

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. The reso ...

Trivia

*Blairmore elected Canada's first Communist town council under mayor Bill Knight during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. *Crowsnest Pass was the site of a train robbery in 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.''Crowsnest And Its People'', Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979 *The frontier town in

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's 1985 film ''

The Journey of Natty Gann ''The Journey of Natty Gann'' is a 1985 American adventure film directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released by Buena Vista Distribution. The film introduced Meredith Salenger and also starred John Cusack, Lainie Ka ...

'' was shot here.

References

External links

* {{Canadian Rockies 1979 establishments in Alberta Populated places established in 1979 Specialized municipalities in Alberta