On April 29 1903, a good portion of Turtle Mountain tumbled onto the little mining town of Frank. The term “slide” doesn’t do it justice: 19 million tons of limestone crashed down with enough ferocity to cause lightning and trap air, allowing the rock to “surf” across the valley. This was Canada’s deadliest rockslide, with well over a hundred people buried under the rubble.

The centre presents this history from several points of view – geological, social and industrial – and in doing so examine Crowsnest Pass’ general history too. This is as full of unexpected drama: including Marxist rallies, shootings, train robberies and smuggling. The historical net is cast so widely, that there’s even a copy of a local 65mil-year-old T-Rex skull and casts of dinosaur footprints along with evidence that the valley has been inhabited for at least 10200 years.

But the crux of the centre are its two films: In the Mountain’s Shadow (20min) provides a potted local mining history using classy cinematography and archive stills. The narrative uses quotes to explain how mines were “Only as safe as the stupidest man in the mine; someone lights up a smoke and…”; and raise concerns that removing too many support pillars may have helped cause the Frank Slide.