Hillcrest, also known as Hillcrest Mines, is an urban community in the Rocky Mountains within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in southwest Alberta, Canada. It was once a hamlet under the jurisdiction of Improvement District (I.D.) No. 5 prior to 1979 when the former I.D. No. 5 amalgamated with four other municipalities to form Crowsnest Pass.
Hillcrest was named after Charles Plummer Hill, an early coal prospector and entrepreneur in the area. The Hillcrest Coal and Coke Company, incorporated on January 31, 1905, began constructing the town the same year, and the Canadian Pacific Railway soon built a spur for transporting coal from the Hillcrest Mine, and a station. Hillcrest soon grew to a population of about 1,000.
Although the mine was successful, and considered one of the safest in the region, an underground explosion in 1914 (Canada's worst mine disaster) killed 189 men -- almost twenty percent of the town's population, and half the mine's workforce. A further explosion in 1926 killed two men.
After the mine closed in 1939, Hillcrest experienced a period of economic decline.
In 1979, the former I.D. No. 5, which included the former Hamlet of Hillcrest, amalgamated with Bellevue, Blairmore, Coleman and Frank to form the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.
According to the 2006 Census of Canada, the designated place population of Hillcrest Mines is 564 in 302 dwellings,[1] which represents 10% of the overall population of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass (5,749).[2]
However, a cross-reference of Hillcrest Mines’ designated place boundary[3] with satellite photography on Google maps[4] shows that approximately 100 dwellings are exempted from the designated place boundary.
Based on an average of 1.87 persons per dwelling,[1] the population of Hillcrest Mines could be approximately 750 if the approximately 100 additional dwellings were included in its designated place boundary.
Crowsnest and its People, Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 1979.
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