Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1903 — MOUNTRENT IN TWAIN [ARTICLE]

MOUNTRENT IN TWAIN

A MINE DAMP EXPLOSION DE, 6TROYS CANADIAN TOWN. Cliffs Tumble Into Yillajje of Frank, In British Columbia, Crush Houses, and Kill Scores in Their Beds —Biver Dammed and Flood Threatens. Without an instant of warning, Turtle mountain, in southwestern Alberta, was split asunder, probably by an explosion of fire damp in a mine, early Wednesday morning, and a minute later the little mining town of Frink, situated-at its base, was overwhelmed with millions of tsns of rock. Tile-inhabitants, aroused in alarm from their slumbers by the tremendously loud reverberation of the heaving mountain, were in" many cases killed by the falling stones, which crushed in their houses and killed them in their beds .

It is believed that the victims of the volcano number ninety-six. Of these, eighty-two men, women aiid children are said to have perilled in their homes. Twelve miners employed by the French Canadian Coal Company were killed while working around the company’s shaft, and two men who were working in the shafts were smothered to death. "Ftfreira'"Csmpanions Hug' their"way-eut through the broken rock. —To--add-to-th«- horror Frank is threatened with complete destruction by flood. Old Man’s which flows through the center of the town, is dammed up with the fallen rocks to the height of nearly 100 feet. The waters of the river are backed up for miles and the entire “valley above the town is flooded.

Fissure Three-quarters Miles Dong. According to reliable reports from eye witnesses, the earth opened for threequarters of a mile and many feet in width. Then the whole northern face of Turtle mountain slipped from place. The shock resultant upon the precipitation of the millions of tons of rock -into—the., valley demolished the houses where the fatalities took place, and so shook the foundations of the majority of the other dwellings that they are unsafe to live in. Many hundreds of people Kill have to live in the open or under such temporary shelter as may be procurable. The railroad track for a distance of two miles or more east of the station is covered with from ten to forty feet of rock. Despite the great risk they ran of being buried uuder the shower of rocks from the mountain top, a volunteer relief force was formed to got into the mine. They managed to approach near enough to determine that not a man at the workings had escaped death, and the bodies of many were seen who had been fearfully 1 mangled. Then they were forced to flee by a renewal of the discharge from the mountain. The disaster was merciful to thore men who were employed above ground In that they must have been killed instantly. It was not confined to the vicinity of the mine alone, for many of the dwelling houses of Frank, at a considerable distance, were demolished by falling rock. Nearly all their occupants suffered death. The accented theory as to the cause, of the disaster As that it was due to a rockslide caused probably by an explosion of fire damp fin; the mine, which earned the top of Turtle mountain down upon the village'; below. What was at first supposed td he the smoke of a volcano is thought to be dust, and the continued fall of small bits of rock merely the aftermath of the original rockslide.