Unlike many settlements that endured through fluctuating coal
prices in the Crowsnest Pass, Lille ultimately became a ghost
town. In the span of only 15 years, the settlement was created
and disappeared. Crowsnest historians note that a combination of
factors doomed the community. Perhaps, it was Lille's limited
accessibility or altitude that led to its demise.
In 1901, prospectors J. J. Fleutot and C. Remy were searching
for coal in the Crowsnest Pass for the British Columbia Gold
Fields Limited, later renamed the Western Canadian Collieries
Ltd. (WCC). Their search led them to an area seven miles north
of Frank, between the Livingstone and Blairmore Mountain ranges
and to an altitude of 1,400 metres. Despite problems of
accessibility, the company proceeded with development quickly
and by years end, WCC had established a small mining community
first called "French Camp."
Initially, travel to the site proved difficult; a pack trail
provided the only access route beginning at Frank. The trail
later widened to a cart track, and, in 1902, construction began
on a railway line. The new camp depended on a route to the
Canadian Pacific Railway main line, but its construction needed
to traverse a difference of 235 metres in elevation. Many hills
and valleys lined the route, and by the time of its completion,
23 timber trestles with masonry abutments and several
switchbacks crossed Gold Creek. Incline grades were steep,
progress was slow, and work was dangerous. When construction
finished in February 1903, only three boxcars could cross at any
one time.
Only two months later, the Frank Slide destroyed a half-mile
of the line, disrupting coal distribution. Since the mining camp
depended on the line for its shipments, the WCC was forced to
cover the cost of repair and wait for the work to be done, which
would take until November of that year.
Foreign influences marked Lilles uniqueness in the area. By
the end of 1903, the town was renamed Lille after the principle
shareholders hometown in France. Two years later, the WCC
finished construction on the Belgian Bernard coking ovens. The
company imported the bricks directly from Belgium and considered
the ovens to be the most advanced in North America. By 1910, the
population reached 400 people, and included many workers from
the United States. The large American influence caused
townspeople to celebrate both 1 July and 4 July as national
holidays.
The town site was abandoned in 1912 for various reasons. As
mining costs were increasing, so was the upkeep of the Frank and
Grassy Mountain Railway. As well, the WCC found that Lille coal
produced higher ash content, and the market for high-grade
metallurgical coke had just decreased. By 1913, operations at
Lille ceased, and mining activities moved to other WCC
properties in Bellevue and Blairmore.
Today, there are few reminders of the once vibrant mining
town, vandals having destroyed the once well-preserved coking
ovens. In January 1978, the Government of Alberta declared the
town site an historical landmark, thus legally protecting the
area from further damage.
|