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* 4 - THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD — Monday. December 11, MW# — THE USIHDiUUufi nuwii/ « iwtuumj* **» ------ ■ ^Tiny Coal Mining Town Now Modern Citym 1_____—*«■. JUr eAAn ntniiU (i4trA A IUUSKiIa. Tfl 101 ft with II rVlnlllatiAn fLand SurveyedFor Toivn In 1885rpjfE Indians called It Steep-banks because of the steep coulee banks on the Oldman River.Later it was referred to as Coalbanks because of the coal contained in die coulee banks. Today it is Lethbridge and isknown internationally as one of the wealthiest and most progressive communities for its size in North America.WILLIAM LETHBRIDGE Lethbridge was surveyed and named in 1885 after William Lethbridge, the first president of the North West Coal and Navigation Co. — the company responsible for bringing the settlement into existence.While William Lethbridge’s came was given to the little coal-mining centre, it was actually the old Board of Trade and Civic Improvement which was the father of Lethbridge.The settlement was only four years old in 1889 when the board was formed on Sept. 8 with the immediate objective of securing the incorporation of Lethbridge as a town.Members of the board, pioneers who were convinced Lethbridge had a bright and promising future, were rewarded for their efforts on Jan. 16. 1881, when the settlement became an incorporated town with a charter granted by the legislature for the North-West Territories at Regina. , „With the establishment of rail transportation facilities, the wide use of the famous Galt coal and the vision by pioneers that Lethbridge had a bright future, the little town soon outgrew its town status, however.FIRST MAYOR Charles A. Magrath was president of the Board of Trade in 1891 and two weeks after Lethbridge received its town charter he was elected the centre’s first mayor.Several of those who had worked tirelessly with him to achieve Lethbridge’s incorporation won seats on the town council. They were J. H. Cav-anah, Harry Bentley, W. Colp-man, C. M. Turner, W. Henderson and T. Curry.As the region’s economy expanded from coal mining and livestock ranching into grain farming and the growing of irrigated sugar beets and other specialty crops, and as the re-THE PAST AND THE PRESENT — Presented here are past and present mayors, the first and the last city manager. Left to right C. A. Magrath, first chief magistrateincorporation as a town and only a year - after Alberta became a province with its ownlegislature in Edmonton.gion’s fertile districts began filling tip with thousands of settlers, the prospects for Lethbridge developing into aa increasingly larger centre became brilliant.GREAT LAND RUSHAnd Lethbridge residents with vision, hope and confidence started agitating early in southern Alberta’s “Great Land Rush” to have the rapidly-growing Lethbridge change its incorporated status from that of a town to that of a city.Their efforts bore fruit in 1906 — a scant 15 years afterEarly in 1906 the act incorporating Lethbridge as a city was passed by the legislature and came into effect on receiving the assent of the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta on May 9.Lethbridge’s town council had its final meeting on May 7 under the gavel of Mayor George Rogers. His Worship and the six town councillors remained in office after May 9, Rogers as the first chiefof the town, Frank Sherri ng, Watson, first city manager that office, H. G. MdCittrick.magistrate of the City of Lethbridge and his associates on council being known as city alderman rather than towncouncillors/The first regular meeting of the first City Council was held on May 21. Lethbridge by then was a bustling and booming centre of nearly 4,000 souls.BUILDING BOOMDuring its early years as a eity, Lethbridge experienced a phenomenal building boom and predictions were made that thepresent incumbent; John T. and the last man to holdcity soon would have a population of 25,000.Ambitious plans were made towards- keeping pace with that anticipated growth and utility services were installed In some parts of the city that amounted to nothing more than bald-headed prairie, in order that building sites would be ready lor the anticipated rush.Land was subdivided far out beyond the city limits — dear across Six-Mile Coulee south of Lethbridge, and there were dozens of subdivisions. Engle 25-foot lots sold at the then-fantastic price of as high as $1,000.Then, when most of the land in southern Alberta had been settled, a series of drought years dropped the bottom from the agricultural economy and Lethbridge’s building boom and landtell flat. population11,070 Lethbridge had a netdebt Of $3,229,646, or $292 percapita. Much of that money had been spent on extending utility services to areas where early development was anticipated, such as the Queen Victoria Park subdivision which finally was developed after the Second World War.Some of the money had been spent to give Lethbridge a street railway service which went into operation in 1912, when the World’s Dry Fanning Congress was held here-That transit system was laid out to serve a population of 25,000, and eventually cost Lethbridge taxpayers more than $1,000,000.With the collapse of the city’sCITY GROWTH (Conuiwed on Page 5)MMYBERMESThe Friendly Community of South AlbertaThe merchant* listed below wish to extend congratulations to The Lethbridge Herald on their 60th Anniversary, and gratitude to The Herald for having brought the 'NEWS' to Manyberries aver these many years. Thanks, too, to the communiy for their valued patronage.BELLEVUE HOTELBOLLINGER'S
Newspaper Details
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge, Alberta, CA
Mon, Dec 11, 1967
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Chinook A.
AB, USA 28 Mar 2022
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