Hillcrest, Alberta

Hillcrest, also known as Hillcrest Mines, is a quiet hamlet in the Crowsnest Pass of the Rocky Mountains of southern Alberta, Canada. Legally it has been part of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass (population: about 6500) since 1979.

Hillcrest 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. The town 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 Hillcrest joined Bellevue, Frank, Blairmore, and Coleman in forming the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

References

"Crowsnest and its People", Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979.