Today we got on the road by nine and had the most picturesque drive you can imagine.
We passed through farm after farm and ranch after ranch on the way to our destination, Hillcrest Mines.
We passed these cattle ranchers driving their herd and were surprised to see ATV's rather than horses. Look on the roadway for the ATV.
We passed lots of fields like this with the hay all bailed waiting to be picked up.
We passed some farms/ranches that were so big we couldn't see the house, barn or silos from the road and then others were nestled alongside.
Once again the scenery was just a joy to look at as we rolled down the highway towing our house behind us.
As if we couldn't keep our eyes off street level the sky did its best to draw our attention too.
Wouldn't it be nice to have this view out your window?
We saw several mini windmill farms and several stand-alones like this one.
LaVon, I didn't forget you girlfriend, here's two dead trees for you!
A going down the road picture.
We found Marilyn and Wilf's street with no problem but darn if we didn't ride right past their home. We were driving slowly down the road looking for house numbers and all of a sudden we hear a horn beeping. Wilf had seen us pass and came after us. (Long time readers will recognize the names Marilyn and Wilf, for you new readers, these are friends of ours from Quail Run, our winter perch)
We got the truck and rig situated in front of their house and went in to visit with them on their back deck. We'll stay put here for the next two days.
We all went for a ride and Wilf took us to see his favorite fishing hole. I would have to agree with Marilyn, its so pretty that it is satisfying just to sit and look at the surroundings without a fishing pole in the hand.
Done here, we took a ride to the neighboring town of Frank. It was here we learned about the worst landslide in the history of North America. Yet, few people have every heard about it.
This is Turtle Mountain, well, what's left of it.
In the early morning hours of April 29, 1903, Turtle Mountain collapsed. In 100 seconds: at least 76 people were buried alive under tons of massive limestone boulders, three-quarters of the homes in Frank were crushed like a house of cards, over a mile of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was completely destroyed and a river became a lake.
In 1901, excavation began and a drift mine was burrowed into Turtle Mountain in order to mine the massive deposits of coal beneath the eastern slope of the mountain. The mine contained huge rooms called stopes separated by gigantic 40-foot long pillars which contained walk-ways and chutes. By October of the following year, the stopes burrowed over 2,300 feet along the eastern vein of coal. Tremors became a regular occurrence in the mines, especially in the early-morning hours, and the miners became quite used to the shaking. Besides, the tremors made their work a whole lot easier. By April of 1903, the mine was virtually self-operating, all the miners had to do was to shovel up the coal as it fell from the ceiling.
The Indians of the area avoided Turtle Mountain. To them, it was the 'mountain that walked'. Their legend would soon become all too real.
By midnight most of the townspeople had already settled in for the night or were making last minute preparations to do so.
The night crew was in place at the mine and graveyard shift was beginning.
By 4 AM the night shift in mines were halfway through their nights work, the townspeople slept and the train crew was getting coal cars hooked up for filling.
In the darkness of night, the mountain started to walk.
At a little after 4 AM, the engineer of the train knew what was about to happen by the sounds and feeling of the ground shaking beneath him. He yelled to the two brakemen to get on the train and he slammed the throttle forward to get out of the way of slide that was sure to come.
The mountain began to creak and groan much louder than ever before. Inside the mine, stope ceilings began to collapse, clogging the walkways and chutes. Miners ran for their lives as the ground began to move beneath their feet. From high above, an horrendous sound like a thousand cracks of thunder disturbed the quiet night as a massive wedge of Turtle Mountain broke away and began falling down the mountain. Ahead of it, a huge wall of frigid air was being pushed along.
The mine entrance was gone in a flash as were the men who sitting outside. A coal car ended up two miles away.
The wall of air rushed across the valley, ripping houses and tents and occupants apart like twigs and flinging them hundreds of feet across the valley floor, only to be buried under the wall of limestone following close behind
When Bob and I saw the huge boulders strewn across the valley we just couldn't believe what we were seeing.
Unless you see this, its hard to imagine all the rocks and boulders that result from a massive landslide.
The power plants was gone in an instant. Everything in the path of of the landslide disappeared, ceased to exist.
Miraculously, the miners were able to dig themselves out after 13 hours only to find their homes and loved ones buried beneath the fallen mountain. Yes, there were survivors but also many lost.
A wedge, sized at 2,100 feet by 3,000 feet by 500 feet, of the eastern slope of Turtle Mountain gave way and slid 2,300 feet down the mountain side. An estimated one hundred million tons of limestone slid into the valley and onto the town of Frank. And it took only 100 seconds.
Done looking at the devastation that took place over 100 years ago we got back into the truck and continued more sightseeing. We stopped at the weekend home of one of the couples they are friends with, Judy and Cal. What a place! The house is about a hundred years old and Bob and I just fell in love with it at first sight. It sits on a beautiful piece of property that has a stream running behind it. After visiting for a short while we headed back to the house. It was dinner time.
After a delicious meal that we all pitched in to make the guys took off to play a game of pool and Marilyn and I settled in for an evening gabfest and of course some computer time.
I couldn't hang as long as the rest of them and I went off to bed. I have no idea when the party broke up because I was sound asleep.
Its so good to see friends again.
2 comments:
Love the dead tree picture AND the cloud in it looks like a UFO. The clouds in these pictures are amazing. We also love Wilf's fishing hole. So beautiful.
Don't know if you will see this or not since your trip was in 2009 and it is now summer of 2010 but I just had to let you know how surprised I am to hear that you went to the location of the Franl slide. My husbands grandfather, Evan Jones, was one of the miners trapped inside and helped with the digging out. He was a small man and was the first one able to squeeze out. His nickname was Shorty Jones. He went on to become famous in Alaska coal mining. We are planning our trip to Alaska in 2011 and hope to see some of the sites from Evan Jones' life.
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