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This grand hotel-turned-hospital was closed in 1922 and torn down in 1928. Rocky Mountain Sanatorium, 1912. Photo: James B Sutherland collection Historical It was replaced by the Turtle Mountain Playground in 1941, a motel, restaurant, dancehall and swimming pool that was Walking Tour popular with residents and visitors until it closed in the 1980s and was demolished in 1991. The owners also held one of Canada's earliest Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises (circa 1958) Of and developed a simpler recipe for chicken gravy in its kitchen which, after the personal approval of the Colonel himself, was adopted across the chain. Frank (Follow the riverside path downstream back to the bridge, and follow the sidewalk back to the Art Gallery.) Crowsnest Pass Doors Open & Heritage Festival This pamphlet was produced by the Crowsnest Heritage Initiative Frank - A Disappearing Town structure served as the roof over Frank's skating rink, before being demolished in 1923 for materials salvage. The original site of Frank, North West Territories (later Alberta), was between Turtle Mountain and the railway From the sidewalk, look carefully in the trees and brush for tracks, next to the region's first coal mine. Town founder remains of the brick and stone foundation on either side of the gas pipeline right-of-way. A partially-unroofed brick flue (best Photo: James B Sutherland collection Henry Frank hosted its grand opening in 1901, a big splashy viewed from outside the Goat Mountain Get-a-way gate) runs up event attended by the Premier and his Public Works the hillside behind, which led to the base of its former 34m high minister, and included sports games, a banquet, and tours steel chimney. The smelter office building dates from April 1905 of the new mine. Frank quickly grew to be the principal and is the oldest surviving structure in Frank. It was extensively town within the Crowsnest Pass, symbolized by its renovated in 1993 and now serves as the office and residence for impressive mine works, tipple and powerhouse, as well as Goat Mountain Get-a-way. five hotels, a dozen businesses, a two-story school, the regional post office and a mansion for the mine general (Continue about 400 metres along the sidewalk across the highway bridge to the large graveled parking lot. Cross the manager. Even the great slide of 1903 could not slow things parking lot to the picnic shelter and the interpretive sign “Sulphur down; in 1905 construction began in the north subdivision Springs” behind the trees.) (the present town) and included a zinc smelter, a large resort hotel and dozens of new houses. What great promise 12. Rocky Mountain Sanatorium (former site - for the “Pittsburgh of Canada”... present parking lot) Around 1880 Samuel Lee, a rancher from east of the Crowsnest It's all gone now. Pass, 'discovered' a cold sulphur spring at the base of Turtle Mountain. Lee erected a log guest house for those using the - - - - - - - springs for their supposed curative powers, the first tourist facility in the Crowsnest Pass. In 1905, the springs property was purchased by the Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company. The Historical Walking Tour of Frank starts at the Allied A two storey hotel at the springs was replaced in 1910 by a Arts Gallery, on Highway 3 at 148 Street. A tour map is in luxurious three storey hotel built here on the river, named the the centre of this booklet. Rocky Mountain Sanatorium. The springs water was piped to the hotel basement where it was heated in tubs for guests. In 1917 This interpretive walk is about 800 metres in length along the Canadian government purchased the hotel and used it as a concrete sidewalks, with a further one kilometre option convalescence hospital for soldiers returned from the battlefields along sidewalks and a flat trail. Both are suitable for persons of World War One. An unintended sideline for their recovery with mobility limitations. Please respect private property was the nearby ‘red-light’ district, across the river on a low hill to while on this walking tour. the northwest (towards Blairmore). Veterans from the hospital dubbed this location “Hill 60” after a World War One landmark in the Ypres Salient in France. 10. Union Hotel/Frank Hotel 1. Frank Hall (present Art Gallery) (former site - present Pure Country Saloon) Probably built in 1915 as a wine and spirits store for the Fernie The Union Hotel was built in 1902 on the main street of the old Mountain Supply Company, this brick building is one of the few Frank townsite, and was one of five hotels built in Frank before surviving old commercial structures in Frank. It served as the World War One. It was moved to this location in 1914, was Frank school between 1921 and 1957, then as the village office renamed the Frank hotel, and primarily housed CPR crews. With and hall for the shrinking community. Today the Crowsnest Pass the end of Prohibition (a provincial ban on alcohol) in 1924, a Allied Arts Association operates a year-round gallery. bar, restaurant and dancehall were added. The Frank Hotel operated until 1957 when it was gutted by fire and torn down. 2. Blais/Ruzicka Store (present Frank Slide Liquor) This building was constructed in 1914 as a replacement for the (continue on the sidewalk for 60 metres, back to the Art Gallery A.E.Blais general store in the old Frank townsite. Blais operated and the end of the Walking Tour. If you wish to continue on a it until 1929 when it was purchased by F.A.Ruzicka. The store further optional 1km loop, then follow the highway sidewalk past closed in 1955 and the building was used sporadically until the interpretive sign “Frank” for another 130m.) extensively restored under the Alberta Main Street Program in the 1980s and reopened as Frank Slide Liquor. Its architecture is 11. Zinc Smelter (foundation) and Smelter Office typical of the small and medium-sized businesses that sprang up (present Goat Mountain Get-a-way office) throughout the Pass during the boom years. Built in 1905, Canada’s first zinc smelter was planned to be North America’s largest. The Canadian Metal Company hoped 3. Firehall (former site – present vacant lot) to take advantage of local coal, and rail in concentrated zinc ore After the original firehall in the old townsite was damaged in a from southeast British Columbia. But the company experienced windstorm in 1917, a new firehall was built behind the Frank Hall technical and financial difficulties, and the smelter never went (site #1). Ironically, it was burned down in 1936 by an arsonist, into commercial production. For many years the empty who had also set alight other buildings in Frank that year. Fire equipment was then stored in the basement of the Methodist Church building (site #4), until the purchase of a new fire truck in the late 1940s required the construction of a garage on 21 Avenue. Frank ceased to have its own fire department after the creation of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in 1979. (Walk 100m up 148th Street to the corner with 21st Avenue.) 4. Methodist Church (present Masonic Hall) Built in 1916 at a cost of $3000, the Methodist Church was also Zinc smelter, 1912 the community hall for Frank's large Czech and Bohemian Photo: James B Sutherland collection population. Downstairs were classrooms and a gymnasium, and it served as Frank's school from 1917 to 1921. Its basement was used to store the town’s firefighting equipment from 1936 to Dominion Avenue, ca. 1910 about 1948, after which the bell was removed and displayed Photo: Glenbow Museum behind the Dunlop Guns (site #9) for several years. In 1970 the Masonic Lodge, which had relocated away from the old Frank townsite after the Slide, purchased the building and reestablished its presence here, which continues today. (Walk 300m along 21st Avenue to the intersection with 150th Street) Typical of Crowsnest Pass towns, this street displays a variety of house styles built and renovated through the years. 5. Zinc Smelter residence (14874 - 21 Avenue) The two-storey gambrel-roofed (barn-style) house on your right was built in 1905 by the Canadian Metal Company, probably for The town of Frank survived the Slide of 1903, and expanded a senior manager of its Frank zinc smelter. north of the railway (the present community) in 1905. A census the following year counted its population at almost 1200. But 6. Hospital (former site – present 14913 - 21 Avenue) fears of a second slide resulted in the houses and businesses in Dr. George Malcolmson came to Frank in 1901, and in 1902 built the south part of Frank being moved further west to safety in one of Alberta’s first rural hospitals behind his house. An x-ray 1912-1914, although the north part of town never moved. Frank’s machine installed in 1906 or 1907 was possibly the first in coal mines closed in 1917 and 1918 and their surface plants were Alberta. The house was moved in 1917; the fate of the hospital is soon removed. The only significant buildings remaining in the unknown. south townsite belonged to the CPR, but each succumbed to fire Frank Villa, ca. 1902-1904 - the roundhouse in 1934, and the station in 1954. Photo: Karen Davidson Seward, Lake Placid, NY 7. Frank Villa The present-day industrial park follows the original street grid. (former site - 152nd Street is the old Dominion Avenue, and is part of the 14937-21 Avenue) Crowsnest Pass Heritage Driving Route. A few basement Samuel Gebo (1862– depressions and an old water standpipe remain.

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