The towns of the Pass are defined by their coal mining histories but geography, ethnography and the nature of the local mine make each of them unique says Robert Earley associate, heritage and communication planner with Community Design Strategies.
Hillcrest is defined by the size of its mine, which was relatively small, while with Bellevue “you’re looking at the layout of the town and how the mine is down at the bottom of the [hill] and the people settling on the ridge above it,” said Earley.
On June 20, while Pass residents were enjoying Bellecrest Days, members of Community Design Strategies (CDS) unveiled the preliminary findings of the third phase of the Heritage Inventory Project.
The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass and CDS are teaming up on the project to determine the most historically significant buildings in the Pass for formal municipal designation.
This project allows property owners to apply for up to $50,000 a year in matching funds if their buildings are designated historic.
The third phase covers Hillcrest, Bellevue and surrounding rural areas where 70 structures are being considered for designation.

Little remains of some of these surrounding rural areas but you can also still see the Mohawk Mine tipple, which is being considered for designation, east Bellevue off Highway 3, which was then part of the community of Maple Leaf, a suburb of Bellevue until it was absorbed in 1957.
Also east of Bellevue was the community of Passburg.
“There’s not much left [of Passburg] for us to look at so primarily we’re looking at Bellevue and Hillcrest,” said Earley.
Earley and his team have been researching historically significant buildings in the community for over three years. They’ve already completed research on structures east of Coleman to the B.C. border, Coleman itself, Frank and Blairmore.
“Every one of the communities in the Pass has something unique about it,” said Earley. “It may have been because of the management that ran the local mine, the people who decided to settle in this area, some of the communities may have a higher number of one ethnic group than another.”
Using public input and their own research, CDS will narrow down to the number of structures being considered for designation to 35 by the fall.