Born in Trenholmville, Quebec, Crowe attended the Governor Dummer Academy, matriculating to the University of Maine where he graduated in 1905 with a degree in civil engineering.

Crowe became interested in the American west during a lecture given by Frank Elwin Weymouth (1874-1941), a civil engineer with the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

In 1924, Frank Crowe left the United States Bureau of Reclamation to join the construction firm of Morrison-Knudsen in Boise, Idaho.

[3] The Hoover Dam construction project and Frank Crowe's role (portrayed by actor Jay Benedict) was dramatised in an episode of the BBC's 2003 docudrama television miniseries Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.

[4] The project and Frank Crowe's role was also dramatized in The History Channel's series America: The Story of Us in episode 9 entitled Bust.