Crowsnest Pass

This article is about the geographical feature. For the municipality, see Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.
Crowsnest Pass

Crowsnest Lake, near the summit of the Crowsnest Pass, looking east toward Crowsnest Mountain.
Elevation 1,358 m (4,455 ft)
Traversed by Crowsnest Highway
Canadian Pacific Railway
Location Crowsnest Pass, Alberta / Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada
Range Canadian Rockies
Coordinates 49°37′57″N 114°41′33″W / 49.63250°N 114.69250°W / 49.63250; -114.69250Coordinates: 49°37′57″N 114°41′33″W / 49.63250°N 114.69250°W / 49.63250; -114.69250
Crowsnest Pass in British Columbia

Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, French: passe du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border.

Geography

The pass is located in southeast British Columbia and southwest Alberta, and is the southernmost rail and highway route through the Canadian Rockies. It is the lowest-elevation mountain pass in Canada south of the Yellowhead Pass (1,130 m); the other major passes, which are higher, being Kicking Horse Pass (1,640 m), Howse Pass (1,530 m) and Vermilion Pass (1,680 m).

Crowsnest Pass comprises a valley running east-west through Crowsnest Ridge. On the Alberta side, the Crowsnest River flows east from Crowsnest Lake, eventually draining into the Oldman River and ultimately reaching Hudson Bay via the Nelson River. Summit Lake on the British Columbia side drains via three intermediary creeks into the Elk River, which feeds into the Kootenay River, and finally into the Columbia River to the Pacific.

Transportation

Main article: Crow Rate
A train heads west toward the summit of the Crowsnest Pass from Coleman, Alberta.
Goat Mountain from the summit of Crown Mountain, Crownsest Pass, 1908.

In prehistoric times, aboriginals used this major breach through the Front Ranges for seasonal migrations, and also for trade between mountain and plains cultures. The first motor vehicle to cross the Canadian Rockies did so via Phillipps Pass, about 1km north of Crowsnest Pass, and in 1917 a road was blasted around the shores of Crowsnest Lake and across Crowsnest Pass, renamed Interprovincial Highway Three in 1932. It is also known as the Crowsnest Highway.

The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Crowsnest Route line from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Kootenay Landing, British Columbia through the Crowsnest Pass between 1897 and 1898. This line was built primarily to access mineral-rich southeastern BC via an all-Canadian rail route, and to assert Canadian (and CPR) sovereignty in an area that U.S. railroads were beginning to build into. It also opened up coal deposits in the Crowsnest and Elk River valleys which were important to mineral smelting operations and assisted the CPR in its conversion of locomotives from wood to coal. The CPR sought and received construction funding from the federal government, partially in exchange for a freight subsidy on prairie farm exports and equipment imports which came to be called the "Crow's Nest Pass Agreement".

"The Crow Rate", as the subsidy agreement came to be referred to, was eventually extended from CPR's Crowsnest Pass railway line to apply to all railway lines in western Canada, regardless of corporate ownership or geography, creating artificially low freight rates for grain shipments through the Great Lakes ports. The rate also correspondingly limited industrial growth in the western provinces as it was cheaper to produce items in eastern Canada and ship them west under the Crow Rate. This subsidy was finally abolished in 1995.

On August 7 1919, Capt. Ernest Hoy flew a Curtiss JN4 "Jenny" through Crowsnest Pass, the first flight across the Canadian Rockies.

Natural resources

The Crowsnest Pass area on both sides of the provincial boundary is rich in coal deposits, which were quickly developed after completion of the rail line. All the mines on the Alberta side were closed by the end of the 20th century as cheaper and safer open-pit mines opened on the British Columbia side of the pass. Some logging and oil and gas exploitation also occurs in the area, and a sulphur plant has been in operation there for several years. Tourism based on the natural and historical resources of the area remains underdeveloped.

History

Crowsnest Pass Highway 3. First Nations long used the Crowsnest Pass but it was not shown on maps until the Palliser Expedition of 1860.
Panoramic view of scenery in the Crowsnest, 1908.
Panoramic view of scenery in the Crowsnest, 1908.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Crowsnest Pass Historical Society (1979). Crowsnest and its people. Coleman: Crowsnest Pass Historical Society. p. 33. ISBN 0-88925-046-4.
  2. ↑ Babaian, Sharon Anne (1985). The coal mining industry in the Crow's Nest Pass. Calgary: Alberta Culture. p. iii.

Bibliography

External links

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