Monday 16 February 2009

Frank Slide

I had made plans to spend the holiday today (Family Day) skiing with friends at our Crowsnest Pass ski hill, Pass Powderkeg, a super community ski area.

My wife, mind you, had other plans. Paddy suggested we take advantage of the free admission for family day at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre being as we hadn't been there since the massive renovations completed this past September. Fortunately, for a change, I was smart enough to listen to her.

Wow! Was I impressed. Brilliant new interpretive displays that even the most ardent Crowsnest Pass historian can learn from. Exciting interactive demos, that kids of all ages will love, of the sensitive monitoring equipment in place on Turtle Mountain to warn of an impending slide. "In the Mountain's Shadow" the audio visual depiction of our mining history, so powerful, it could surely incite Conrad Black to pen a manifesto guiding us to a new social order, one in which capitalists would walk with heads hung low. "On the Edge of Destruction" the new stimulating docudrama truthfully brings to life the story of the destructive and lethal rock slide. All in all an entertaining, educational, and enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I will go back and happily pay the token admission to dig into the interpretation a little deeper.