
It was the largest known landslide in Canadian history.
The Hope Slide forever changed the landscape of the Nicolum Valley in the Cascade Mountain Range, tragically taking the lives of four motorists who were on BC Highway 3 at the time.
We recently discovered a series of images documenting the incident itself, as well as search and rescue and reconstruction efforts following the slide. As far as we know, only one or two of these images have ever been shown to the public before now.
View the complete set of images on Flickr

A Timeline of the Slide Event
In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 9th, 1965, a snow avalanche blocked the Hope-Princeton Highway, in the Nicolum Valley, just outside of Hope. A queue of motorists on the Princeton side of the avalanche began to collect. Some of them chose to turn around and head back up the mountain, while others chose to wait for crews to clear the slide.
At approximately 7 am, a devastating rock slide occurred at the same location, when half of Johnson Peak collapsed and descended into the valley below. The slide filled the valley bottom with more than 47 million cubic metres of rock, mud, and debris – up to 500 ft deep in some locations. Outram Lake, which had been at the foot of the slide area, was completely displaced. The slide buried a car that had become stuck in the first slide, an oil tanker truck, and a loaded hay truck which had stopped behind the tanker.




Finally, with the assistance of a search dog, crews were able to recover the bodies of Thomas Starchuck, the driver of the hay truck and Bernie Lloyd Beck, the driver of the convertible. The two other victims of the slide, Dennis George Arlitt and Mary Kalmakoff, were never recovered.






Department of Highways crews worked tirelessly to re-establish the highway connection and in 13 days a drive-able route had been established over the slide.



Related links:
- In the years since the slide occurred, the alignment of BC Highway 3 through the area has changed and developed. Even the slide site itself has begun to recover and is now partially covered in trees – masking the scar that made such an impact.
- View the complete set of images on Flickr
- To get a different perspective of the scale of the slide and the damage it caused, take a trip back in time in our Road Trip Time Machine video and travel the area as it was in 1966, just one year after the slide occurred.
- Interested in seeing more of the ministry’s history in photos? Check out these posts: BC Highway History
Do you have any questions about this, or anything else the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure does? Let us know in the comments below.
I remember this well. I wrote the first news reports of the slide that morning. Working news at CHWK Radio in Chilliwack I arrived at 5:30 a.m. and began the regular police checks throughout the valley. Hope RCMP reported a slide and had sent a car to investigate. Shortly afterwards we learned that the entire mountain had come down. Later in the day then Highways Minister Phil Gaglardi gave us an interview and explained the plan provide a temporary route. It was a busy time providing voice reports and copy — large format reel to reel tape and typewriters.
That would have been hectic, especially in an old school newsroom. Thanks for sharing your memories, Gerald.
Hi, we are interested in licensing these photos for use on Highway Thru Hell. Please contact me to discuss. Thanks for your help!
Hi there Natalie – We’ve just sent you an email outlining the steps to do this. Thanks!
Was there a pullin picnic spot on the mountain side that got covered with the slide. We were out for a family drive two weeks before the slide and stopped and had lunch at the picnic tables. We have always thought that is where we were and would like to get that settled in our minds. Thank you.
Hello Dianne – unfortunately, we cannot confirm if there was a picnic table/rest area at this location prior to the slide. We have not found any mention of it in our research, but perhaps other local folks who read this comment might be able to chime in?
There’s another photo, not shown here, that says ‘am RCMP officer using a metal detector’. It’s not and RCMP officer as the forage cap has no gold band and is the wrong shape. The photos here do show RCMP officers with the right forage cap plus also with the beaver fur hats.
Thank you for this information Greg.
Thanks for this post and these photos!
CBC News is interested in writing a story about them.
Is someone available to talk about the discovery of the photos and the history of the slide?
Thank you,
Chad
Hi Chad – thanks for connecting with us. We’d be happy to talk to you about the photos and the history of the slide. We will respond to you via email with those details.