The worst mine disaster Canada has ever had, and the spark was never found
At half past nine on the morning of 19 June 1914, methane ignited in the Hillcrest mine and set off a coal dust explosion that killed 189 of the 237 men underground. It is the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history. The town held about a thousand people and was left with roughly 90 widows and 250 fatherless children; 43 of the dead were immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Investigators established the methane and the coal dust but never found the spark that started it. The mine closed for good in 1939. A monument stands at Hillcrest Cemetery over the mass graves, ten minutes down the road from the Frank Slide.
Hillcrest Mines, Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
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