THE LEGEND OF THE FRANK SLIDE
INTRO:
Perhaps one shouldn't reinforce apocryphal stories, but like the facts, they too can have a firm hold on one's fancy and one's roots. As a young boy growing up on a farm north of Lundbreck, Alberta, the ‘Pass' was always a place of excitement and mystery; the Frank Slide being one of the feature attractions. Years later, working in the arts, I remembered just one of the stories I had heard about the great slide and wrote it down in this treatment of the 'legend'. A man I was playing music with at the time became interested in this story and adapted it into a song; it can be heard on an album by Stompin' Tom Connors, entitled SONGS OF TRAGEDY, there called 'My God How That Mountain Came Down'.
Perhaps one shouldn't reinforce apocryphal stories, but like the facts, they too can have a firm hold on one's fancy and one's roots. As a young boy growing up on a farm north of Lundbreck, Alberta, the ‘Pass' was always a place of excitement and mystery; the Frank Slide being one of the feature attractions. Years later, working in the arts, I remembered just one of the stories I had heard about the great slide and wrote it down in this treatment of the 'legend'. A man I was playing music with at the time became interested in this story and adapted it into a song; it can be heard on an album by Stompin' Tom Connors, entitled SONGS OF TRAGEDY, there called 'My God How That Mountain Came Down'.
THE LEGEND OF THE FRANK SLIDE
On the tragic scroll of the heavenly toll
The town of Frank appears
Where a longtime ago the Blackfeet and Cree
Carried their burnished spears
PART I
The chieftain's tent heard many a rent
Of a cry sent up to the stars
And the wind gently stroked the tall aspen and pine
Like a host of a thousand guitars
And these pines reached the sky to where birds seldom fly
High up on those mountains sublime
But the gray mass of rock rose for miles and more
Far beyond that timber line
And no one could tell what up there did dwell
For no one had ventured that far
But it was said that whoever could scale that stone
Could reach and pluck out a star
And away up on high one could see the faint sky
Creeping in through the mountains so wide
And it came down for miles to the valley below
And made a pass to the other side
The sap would run loose in the jack pine and spruce
The stags put their new antlers to the test
And spring would rush in like a raven's sharp cry
In the valley of the golden Crow's Nest
But never too near would a brave man appear
To the shrine from whence came the fountain
For constantly creeping like a ponderous beast
Was this awesome Turtle Mountain
There were stories of men who never knew when
To stop pursuit of the hunter's prize
And one fatal step and a thunderous crash
Put an end to their foolhardy lives
And their captured souls played out their roles
Each night with their hideous moans
And the medicine man, the wisest of all
Warned all of the Manitou's stones
PART II
From the east one day there came to stay
White men in search of land
And they pressed into the valley unto the sacred ground
Ignoring the chieftain's command
And the buck and the doe and the buffalo
Were pushed far into the back
And the braves met their doom in their glorious paint
And died at the sound of a crack
And though at one time they all had their own line
Which no other tribesman could cross
They gathered together in a council of war
To discuss means of recovering their loss
And gathered for miles in all shapes and styles
Wigwams dotted the plain
And council fires burned far into the night
Ancient pride was suffering pain
Where a short time before they had roamed by the score
The game disappeared in the hills
And the screeching of plows and dynamite blasts
Replaced the cry of the whippoorwills
And the wan hunger etched faces that had once known the places
Of Lords of the valleys and streams
Discovered death and defeat before the white man
Bid good-bye to past glories and dreams
There were some who urged death unto the last breath
To regain freedom they once had enjoyed
But the old men shook their heads for they knew all too well
The ways that the white man employed
“But Manitou won't forget the children who let
The white man take over their land
Let us pray unto him to smile again
Perhaps then they will understand”.
The prayers were presented by cries half-demented
Until surely he must have heard
"Let us reach the village where the forked-tongued ones dwell
Let us give the white man our word".
But the wise man who was chosen found the white heart was frozen
When he presented them with his plea
With scorn and derision he was greeted and hailed
As they laughed at the crazy old Cree
"What's that redskin? Let's hear it again
You'll bring the mountain down upon us?
Hey boys, here's a laugh I ain't heard for a while
Get a load of that crazy old cuss!"
With noble heart bowed and a proud spirit cowed
He returned with a curse 'neath his breath
Hardly daring to speak in anger and shame
Called unto Manitou for the white man's death
Then there was some talk of war as there had been before
The hot bloods were bound for the trail
But the chiefs and the medicine men shook their sad heads
They were sure Manitou would not fail
And in a matter of years they were herded like steers
Led off to the butcher's block
And those born to hunt in the deep forest land
Were forced to try farming in rock
"You can hunt or fish, do as you wish”,
Said the magnanimous peace treaty man
The only problem was there were few fish and no game
On this patch of hard alkali land
But they bore the pain as they bore the rain
Which sometimes brought up a green shoot or two
And the oldest of them still sat and awaited
The mighty spirit of Gitchie Manitou
On the tragic scroll of the heavenly toll
The town of Frank appears
Where a longtime ago the Blackfeet and Cree
Carried their burnished spears
PART I
The chieftain's tent heard many a rent
Of a cry sent up to the stars
And the wind gently stroked the tall aspen and pine
Like a host of a thousand guitars
And these pines reached the sky to where birds seldom fly
High up on those mountains sublime
But the gray mass of rock rose for miles and more
Far beyond that timber line
And no one could tell what up there did dwell
For no one had ventured that far
But it was said that whoever could scale that stone
Could reach and pluck out a star
And away up on high one could see the faint sky
Creeping in through the mountains so wide
And it came down for miles to the valley below
And made a pass to the other side
The sap would run loose in the jack pine and spruce
The stags put their new antlers to the test
And spring would rush in like a raven's sharp cry
In the valley of the golden Crow's Nest
But never too near would a brave man appear
To the shrine from whence came the fountain
For constantly creeping like a ponderous beast
Was this awesome Turtle Mountain
There were stories of men who never knew when
To stop pursuit of the hunter's prize
And one fatal step and a thunderous crash
Put an end to their foolhardy lives
And their captured souls played out their roles
Each night with their hideous moans
And the medicine man, the wisest of all
Warned all of the Manitou's stones
PART II
From the east one day there came to stay
White men in search of land
And they pressed into the valley unto the sacred ground
Ignoring the chieftain's command
And the buck and the doe and the buffalo
Were pushed far into the back
And the braves met their doom in their glorious paint
And died at the sound of a crack
And though at one time they all had their own line
Which no other tribesman could cross
They gathered together in a council of war
To discuss means of recovering their loss
And gathered for miles in all shapes and styles
Wigwams dotted the plain
And council fires burned far into the night
Ancient pride was suffering pain
Where a short time before they had roamed by the score
The game disappeared in the hills
And the screeching of plows and dynamite blasts
Replaced the cry of the whippoorwills
And the wan hunger etched faces that had once known the places
Of Lords of the valleys and streams
Discovered death and defeat before the white man
Bid good-bye to past glories and dreams
There were some who urged death unto the last breath
To regain freedom they once had enjoyed
But the old men shook their heads for they knew all too well
The ways that the white man employed
“But Manitou won't forget the children who let
The white man take over their land
Let us pray unto him to smile again
Perhaps then they will understand”.
The prayers were presented by cries half-demented
Until surely he must have heard
"Let us reach the village where the forked-tongued ones dwell
Let us give the white man our word".
But the wise man who was chosen found the white heart was frozen
When he presented them with his plea
With scorn and derision he was greeted and hailed
As they laughed at the crazy old Cree
"What's that redskin? Let's hear it again
You'll bring the mountain down upon us?
Hey boys, here's a laugh I ain't heard for a while
Get a load of that crazy old cuss!"
With noble heart bowed and a proud spirit cowed
He returned with a curse 'neath his breath
Hardly daring to speak in anger and shame
Called unto Manitou for the white man's death
Then there was some talk of war as there had been before
The hot bloods were bound for the trail
But the chiefs and the medicine men shook their sad heads
They were sure Manitou would not fail
And in a matter of years they were herded like steers
Led off to the butcher's block
And those born to hunt in the deep forest land
Were forced to try farming in rock
"You can hunt or fish, do as you wish”,
Said the magnanimous peace treaty man
The only problem was there were few fish and no game
On this patch of hard alkali land
But they bore the pain as they bore the rain
Which sometimes brought up a green shoot or two
And the oldest of them still sat and awaited
The mighty spirit of Gitchie Manitou
PART III
Meanwhile a white discovered one night
As he watched his camp fire licks
That one of the stones seemed to take on a flame
And burn more brightly than sticks
An idea came so he staked out a claim
For he had discovered the coal
And buried beneath and in the valleys nearby
Was enough to claim many a soul
And it wasn't so long before the miners so strong
Descended to the valley in scores
And began a mine which could run nigh on forever
Before one discovered its core
So the white man gained wealth as the red lost his health
As he mouldered out on the plain
With the badlands sucking his soul from his frame
As they greedily sucked up the rain
It wasn't so long before hundreds so strong
Came to live and mole in the pass
While casting a shadow of mockery it seemed
The mountain smiled in its sleep at the mass
Meanwhile a white discovered one night
As he watched his camp fire licks
That one of the stones seemed to take on a flame
And burn more brightly than sticks
An idea came so he staked out a claim
For he had discovered the coal
And buried beneath and in the valleys nearby
Was enough to claim many a soul
And it wasn't so long before the miners so strong
Descended to the valley in scores
And began a mine which could run nigh on forever
Before one discovered its core
So the white man gained wealth as the red lost his health
As he mouldered out on the plain
With the badlands sucking his soul from his frame
As they greedily sucked up the rain
It wasn't so long before hundreds so strong
Came to live and mole in the pass
While casting a shadow of mockery it seemed
The mountain smiled in its sleep at the mass
PART IV
And for a long time the red man toiled in the lime
As his numbers grew more few
The whites settled and prospered and sank the deep shafts
The boom towns came into view
As the dynamite would ring up more towns would spring
Along the Old Man River so wide
And the Indian story was lost in the past
And his threat of the great mountain slide
But a withered old Cree in nineteen-o-three
On April the twenty-second
Left his treaty land and came into town
Once again to the white people beckoned
They heard the story once more as they had once before
Though not with threats or demands on this day
But he wanted them to know ere the sun rose again
The rock would stir in a most mighty way
But away they turned and his message was spurned
But there was one who told them to wait
And thought there was truth in the old Indian's tale
Asked to question him 'fore it was too late
For when he had been young he had travelled along
From the mountains right to the sea
And though he knew the country for miles around
The Indians knew it far better than he
So the council was swayed and the Indian stayed
And they listened to him carefully
Decided to investigate the mountain itself
Its nature and its stability
So an engineer was sent and up the mountain he went
Returned and laughed at their fears
All was well, he reported, the mountain was safe
It will stand for hundreds of years
So the red's word was spurned, to the reservation he turned
With his head bowed low in doom
For he was sure he was right, the mountain would fall
And become the white man's tomb
And on the twenty-third day ere the sun came to stay
At three o'clock in the morn
A dog's howl echoed through the valley that night
And a moment in history was born
The night shift was weary, their eyes choked and bleary
With the coal dust and the dim miner's lamp
They were looking forward to see daylight again
Their bones ached with fatigue and the damp
But their sunlight to see was not meant to be
They found the exits barred and then
A low rumble announced the tragic approach
Of a mountain awakening again
And in the great Pass their grim fate was cast
The top of the mountain seemed to rise and then
Came hurtling down for miles and miles
Covering all it discovered therein
Rocks large as a house were like a wild beasts aroused
Crushed all life they found in their way
And when the dawn finally appeared not a house could be seen
Not a man saw daylight that day
Except for a girl that. somehow missed the whirl
Of the millions of rock in the valley so wide
She was found lying among the hot stones
And they named her Frankie Slide
On the dead man's scroll of the heavenly toll
Is written the name of a town
And those who were near still shudder in fear
My God! How that mountain came down!
***** THE END *****
And for a long time the red man toiled in the lime
As his numbers grew more few
The whites settled and prospered and sank the deep shafts
The boom towns came into view
As the dynamite would ring up more towns would spring
Along the Old Man River so wide
And the Indian story was lost in the past
And his threat of the great mountain slide
But a withered old Cree in nineteen-o-three
On April the twenty-second
Left his treaty land and came into town
Once again to the white people beckoned
They heard the story once more as they had once before
Though not with threats or demands on this day
But he wanted them to know ere the sun rose again
The rock would stir in a most mighty way
But away they turned and his message was spurned
But there was one who told them to wait
And thought there was truth in the old Indian's tale
Asked to question him 'fore it was too late
For when he had been young he had travelled along
From the mountains right to the sea
And though he knew the country for miles around
The Indians knew it far better than he
So the council was swayed and the Indian stayed
And they listened to him carefully
Decided to investigate the mountain itself
Its nature and its stability
So an engineer was sent and up the mountain he went
Returned and laughed at their fears
All was well, he reported, the mountain was safe
It will stand for hundreds of years
So the red's word was spurned, to the reservation he turned
With his head bowed low in doom
For he was sure he was right, the mountain would fall
And become the white man's tomb
And on the twenty-third day ere the sun came to stay
At three o'clock in the morn
A dog's howl echoed through the valley that night
And a moment in history was born
The night shift was weary, their eyes choked and bleary
With the coal dust and the dim miner's lamp
They were looking forward to see daylight again
Their bones ached with fatigue and the damp
But their sunlight to see was not meant to be
They found the exits barred and then
A low rumble announced the tragic approach
Of a mountain awakening again
And in the great Pass their grim fate was cast
The top of the mountain seemed to rise and then
Came hurtling down for miles and miles
Covering all it discovered therein
Rocks large as a house were like a wild beasts aroused
Crushed all life they found in their way
And when the dawn finally appeared not a house could be seen
Not a man saw daylight that day
Except for a girl that. somehow missed the whirl
Of the millions of rock in the valley so wide
She was found lying among the hot stones
And they named her Frankie Slide
On the dead man's scroll of the heavenly toll
Is written the name of a town
And those who were near still shudder in fear
My God! How that mountain came down!
***** THE END *****
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