Geography
The city of Lethbridge has a population of about 85,000 and is located in southern Alberta at the crossroads of four major highways, about 100 kilometres north of the Alberta-Montana border and 210 kilometres south of Calgary. The Crowsnest Trail (Highway #3) going east leads to the Trans-Canada Highway and Saskatchewan and to the Crowsnest Pass and the B. C. interior going west. About ninety minutes travelling southwest will take you to the majestic mountain scenery of Waterton Glacier International Park - a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A major feature of the Lethbridge area is its rolling hills called the coulees. One of the world's largest railroad viaducts, informally referred to as the High Level Bridge, is used by the CPR to carry trains over the coulees and across the Old Man River. Built between 1908 and 1909 it is 1.6 kilometers long and 96 meters high.
Climate
Lethbridge is one of the warmest and sunniest cities in Canada with about 2,400 hours of sunshine per year. Summers are semi-arid with warm to hot days and cooler nights. Winters are generally moderate with periodic cold spells which are frequently interrupted by warm west winds, known as chinooks, that blow over the mountains and can end frigid weather very quickly. Average temperatures range from a January average low of minus13.8C to average highs of 25C in July and August. Lethbridge ranks as the second driest city in Canada with average precipitation of 386.3 millimeters (15.21 in.) and also places second in the country for the number of windy days per year.
From Furs to Farming: A Short History of Lethbridge (By Geoff Bradshaw)
When the newly formed Northwest Mounted Police arrived in the Alberta District of the Northwest Territories in 1774, it was to bring law and order to the illegal whiskey trade which was having a detrimental effect on the local native Indian population. A few years before, the last great Indian battle had taken place in the river valley in which the Blackfeet had overwhelmed their Cree enemies with superior fire power from their repeating rifles obtained from American traders in exchange for bison (buffalo) hides and other animal pelts. Coming overland by bullock wagon from Fort Benton, head of steam navigation on the Missouri, the traders had established forts in the area, the most notorious being Fort Whoop-Up (or Fort Hamilton) six kilometres upstream from present-day Lethbridge. The NWMP were able to control this illegal trade, at the same time maintaining Canadian sovereignty over the area.
The discovery of coal outcrops in the banks of the Belly River (later to be named Oldman River) led to the formation of the North-Western Coal and Navigation Company. Three steam boats were built to haul the coal barges down river to the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway. When this proved to be impractical due to the shallowness of the river for a large part of the year, a narrow guage railway was built to Lethbridge from Medicine Hat. The railway was later upgraded to standard guage and extended through the Crowsnest Pass by 1897, and other lines were built making the newly incorporated town a significant a rail junction. In 1885 the name Lethbridge was first used for the community (replacing both Coal Banks and Coalhurst as former names), from William Lethbridge of Devon, England who was president of the mining company. Lethbridge became a noted coal mining town and with the completion of a railway viaduct across the river valley in 1909 its importance grew as a division point on the CPR. The coal mines continued to be worked until the late 1950s.
Meanwhile cattle ranchers had moved into the area, but problems with lack of water and harsh winters made this a less-than-successful venture. The introduction of barbed wire led to the fencing of the prairies and the start of grain farming, despite the dire predictions of the Palliser Expedition of 1857 which had declared a large area of the southern prairies unfit for agriculture. Fortunately advances in dryland farming techniques, the introduction of irrigation by Mormon pioneers, and the development of new strains of wheat allowed agriculture to take over as the mainstay of the economy of Lethbridge and area. In more recent years crop diversification has led to a broader based agricultural economy, and food and cattle feed processing are important Lethbridge and area industries. Being on the periphery of oil and gas production its growth has been gradual but steady. An agricultural research centre, and a college and university, have also added to its importance as the service centre of the region. In the 1980s the CPR rail yards moved west to Kipp leaving more room for development of the downtown area, and the construction of the Crowsnest Trail allowing highway traffic to pass more freely through the city.
Today the City of Lethbridge is proud of its pioneering past, and is looking forward with confidence to a future of steady but controlled growth and development.
Economy
Lethbridge is the commercial, distribution, financial and industrial centre of southwestern Alberta with a trading area population of about 275,000. It is the home of one of five federal agricultural research stations and sometimes referred to as the Irrigation Capitol of Canada. The area's primary agriculture-based economy includes extensive grain, beet and corn farming, large cattle feed lots as well as mixed farming and market gardening. Although the top five employers are government-based, the economy has diversified to include industry, health, hospitality, education and retailing. There is an abundance of shopping available in several malls, power centres, chain stores, a box store and a variety of independent specialty shops. Lethbridge and vicinity is served by the Lethbridge Herald, a newspaper published daily, including Sundays, with the exception of some holidays.
Travel and Traffic
Although Lethbridge has ample amenities, it is still sufficiently limited in size to offer some of the flavours of smaller city life. Traffic jams are rare and generally occur only when there are accidents or weather-related traffic problems. Most locations in Lethbridge can be reached within twenty minutes or so by car from anywhere else in the city. Lethbridge Transit offers public transportation using 40 buses providing service on 16 routes. These previously all started and ended downtown, but recently some cross-town and shuttle routes were introduced.
The highways to Calgary and the U. S. border are mainly four-lane routes with speed limits of 110 km per hour. There are several daily 45-minute flights from the Lethbridge Regional Airport to Calgary as well as daily non-stop service to Edmonton. Greyhound offers bus service in four directions, including several routes to Calgary.
Education
The school district has both a public and separate system containing a total of 19 schools with an overall enrollment of about 7,800 students ranging from Kindergarten to grade 12. Included are a French immersion program, an alternate senior high school, an integrated occupational program and six outreach programs for students in special circumstances.
There are also excellent opportunities for post-secondary education. The University of Lethbridge offers a wide range of degree programs and has an enrollment of over 8,000 students. Lethbridge College has an enrollment of about 7,000 students and offers an array of diploma and trades programs as well as a large variety of non-credit courses. Red Crow Community College, located on the Kainai Nation Reserve, also has a campus in Lethbridge and provides adult upgrading, continuing education and some courses offered in partnership with the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge.
Culture, Sports and Entertainment
The City of Lethbridge offers a variety of cultural amenities, including a symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, community band, community choir, a musical theatre group with a production every fall and a professional theatre group with productions in summer and the Christmas season. These productions are generally staged in a main theatre with seating for 500 or a smaller, black-box theatre which seats 180. During the academic year the University of Lethbridge Faculty of Fine Arts offers a variety of musical performances, theatre productions, new media and other visual presentations open to the public in its theatres and other facilities. Lethbridge also has a superb library, a recently expanded museum and archives, several art galleries, the Nikko Yuko Japanese Garden and an interpretive centre in a historic fort with a focus on early trading in the area.
The Enmax Centre, a 6,500 seat, multi-purpose arena is the venue for periodic concerts, circuses, skating events, etc., and serves as the home of the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the major junior level Western Hockey League. The city is the site of horse racing at Exhibition Park and the Lethbridge Bulls of the Western Major Baseball League. The university and Lethbridge College also have several teams involved in inter-varsity sports. For movie lovers, there are 27 screens in three theatres, including one discount movie theatre with a focus on low admission prices.
In addition, there are several regional attractions within driving distance from Lethbridge, including the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre, Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretative Centre, Remington Carriage Museum, Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Heritage Museum, Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, Frank Slide Interpretive Centre and Fort Museum of North West Mounted Police.
Leisure and Recreation
The Old Man River flows through the city providing a location for one of the largest urban park systems in North America in the river valley, the coulees and various other parts of Lethbridge. Many of these parks are connected by an extensive system of hiking and cycling trails. There are seven swimming pools (five indoor), five golf courses, about twelve tennis courts, an eight-diamond softball complex, a curling rink, skateboarding park, BMX bicycle track, nature reserve and six indoor ice centres, one of which usually has ice during the summer. The YMCA and YWCA have centres in Lethbridge and there are other facilities for disc golf, indoor and outdoor soccer, racquet ball, squash and an ascent climbing centre. The university's recently-completed Centre for Sport and Wellness also offers some programs open to the public. The Castle Mountain Ski resort is located about 150 kilometres west of Lethbridge and skiing can also be enjoyed in Fernie and Banff.
Health Care
The Chinook Regional Hospital has 232 acute care beds and five geriatric beds and serves as a general hospital for the Lethbridge area as well as a referral centre for the Chinook Health Region. It provides a comprehensive range of health services including an intensive care unit, CAT scan, MRI, angiography, laproscopic surgery and a neonatal intensive care unit as well as several clinics and educational support services. It is equipped with a helipad for use when transporting patients to Calgary by helicopter. St. Michael's Health Centre operates a 210-bed residential care facility with a range of rehabilitation, palliative and continuing care services. Lethbridge and vicinity has over 160 physicians and surgeons, about 40 dentists, 30 chiropractors and 15 optometrists.
Governance
Lethbridge is represented in Ottawa by one Member of Parliament and has one member of the Senate. The city has two members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Edmonton, representing Lethbridge East and West. Lethbridge City Council is comprised of the mayor and eight aldermen elected at-large in October every three years. It presides over an operating budget of about $200 million with more that fifty percent of its revenues coming from property taxes.
Further Information
For further information, please consult the following.
http://www.chooselethbridge.ca/easymove/
http://www.lethbridge.ca/
http://www.uleth.ca/
http://www.lethbridgecollege.ab.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethbridge
http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
http://lethbridgechamber.com/
www.countylethbridge.ab.ca
http://www.chinookcountry.com/