Regional History
The Byron Hills Property is located in the Crowsnest Pass and addresses two main
communities being the towns of Bellevue and Hillcrest.
According to Wikipedia, the community of Crowsnest Pass owes its existence to coal
mining, the area's primary industry since the first mine 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, and all the mines on the
Alberta side closed throughout the 20th century as cheaper, safer open-pit mines
opened on the British Columbia side of the pass. There is an operating coal mine
just across the B.C. border in Sparwood which continues to provide significant employment
for 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 Frank Slide). In 1914, the Hillcrest
mine disaster occurred in the Hillcrest Mine, killing 189 men. Serious 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 center for "rum-running" during the prohibition of 1916 - 1923, when
liquor was illegally brought across the provincial border from British Columbia.
This legacy is celebrated each July during Rum-Runner Days, which includes a parade,
many civic and sporting events, and a fireworks display called Thunder In the Valley
that attracts tens of thousands of visitors from nearby communities.
Bellevue is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of
Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was formerly incorporated as a village
prior to 1979 when it amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest
Pass. Unlike some of the other communities in Crowsnest Pass, which relied on a
single coal mine, Bellevue benefitted from the proximity of several successful mines
and, despite setbacks from fire, strikes, mine accidents and fluctuations in the
coal market, persisted as a successful community to the present day.
Bellevue was founded in 1905 on the flat land above the Bellevue Mine operated by
West Canadian Collieries. The naming of the town is credited to Elsie Fleutot, the
young daughter of one of WCC’s French principals, Jules J. Fleutot, after she exclaimed
“Quelle belle vue!” (What a beautiful view!). In 1909 the Maple Leaf Coal Company
commenced operations at the Mohawk Bituminous Mine and constructed the settlement
of Maple Leaf adjacent to Bellevue. In 1913 WCC transferred many workers to Bellevue
from its closed Lille operations. WCC displayed a five-ton coal boulder at the 1910
Dominion Exhibition in Calgary. This period of growth was not without setbacks.
An explosion in the Bellevue Mine during a partial afternoon shift on December 9th,
1910 killed 30 miners. In 1917 a fire destroyed most of Bellevue’s business section,
followed by smaller fires in 1921 and 1922. A shanty-town called Bush town, or Il
Bosc, below Bellevue was flooded in 1923 but persisted for several years.
West Canadian Collieries opened the Adanac Mine at Byron Creek in 1945, but by 1957
all of the Bellevue area mines were closed. The tipple at Bellevue continued to
process coal from WCC’s Grassy Mountain open-pit, but was removed in 1962 after
that operation closed. These closures caused a critical reduction in Bellevue's
tax base.
Bellevue finally incorporated into a village in 1957, and elected Alberta's first
female mayor. The realignment of Highway 3 in the 1970s led to a decline of Bellevue’s
business section, although the residential areas continued to thrive. Following
amalgamation of five local school districts in 1966, Bellevue joined four other
local communities in amalgamation into the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in 1979
which restored a measure of financial stability, and Bellevue continues to thrive
today.
On August 2, 1920, local miners George Arkoff, Ausby Auloff and Tom Bassoff robbed
the Canadian Pacific Railway's train No. 63 at gunpoint, hoping to find wealthy
rum-runner Emilio “Emperor Pic” Picariello aboard. Eluding the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, the Alberta Provincial Police and the CPR Police, Auloff escaped into the
United States while Bassoff and Arkoff remained in the area. On August 7 the two
were spotted in the Bellevue Café. Three constables entered the café through the
front and back doors, and in the ensuing shootout Arkoff, RCMP Constable Ernest
Usher and APP Constable F.W.E. Bailey were killed while Bassoff, though wounded,
escaped into the rubble of the Frank Slide. During the pursuit, Special Constable
Nicolas Kyslik was accidentally shot and killed by another officer. Bassoff was
eventually apprehended without incident on August 11th at Pincher Station, 35 kilometres
to the east. Although testimony suggests that the police officers had failed to
identify themselves and had probably fired first, Bassoff was found guilty of murder
and hanged in Lethbridge, Alberta on December 22, 1920. Ausby Auloff was captured
in 1924 near Butte, Montana after trying to sell a distinctive railway watch. Auloff,
who had not been involved in the shootout, was returned to Alberta where he was
sentenced to seven years imprisonment, and died in 1926.
Hillcrest, also known as Hillcrest Mines, was named after Charles Plummer Hill,
an early coal prospector and entrepreneur in the area. The Hillcrest Coal and Coke
Company, incorporated on January 31, 1905, began constructing the town the same
year, and the Canadian Pacific Railway soon built a spur for transporting coal from
the Hillcrest Mine, and a station. Hillcrest soon grew to a population of about
1,000. Although the mine was successful, and considered one of the safest in the
region, an underground explosion in 1914 (Canada's worst mine disaster) killed 189
men -- almost twenty percent of the town's population, and half the mine's workforce.
A further explosion in 1926 killed two men. After the mine closed in 1939, Hillcrest
experienced a period of economic decline.
In 1979, the former I.D. No. 5, which included the former Hamlet of Hillcrest, amalgamated
with Bellevue, Blairmore, Coleman and Frank to form the Municipality of Crowsnest
Pass.