Lethbridge is the commercial, financial, transportation and industrial centre of southern Alberta. It is Alberta’s third-largest by population after Calgary and Edmonton. Half of the workforce is employed in the health, education, retail and hospitality sectors. It was home to ARCHES, North America’s busiest supervised drug use facility from March 2018 to August 2020.
About Lethbridge in brief
Lethbridge is the commercial, financial, transportation and industrial centre of southern Alberta. The city’s economy developed from drift mining for coal in the late 19th century and agriculture in the early 20th century. Half of the workforce is employed in the health, education, retail and hospitality sectors, and the top five employers are government-based. The only university in Alberta south of Calgary is in Lethbridge, and two of the three colleges in southern Alberta have campuses in the city. It was home to ARCHES, North America’s busiest supervised drug use facility from March 2018 to August 2020 which was dubbed a \”new landmark\” by The Star. It is Alberta’s third-largest by population after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rocky Mountains contribute to the city’s warm summers, mild winters, and windy climate. It has been turned into one of the largest urban park systems in North America at 16 square kilometres of protected land. Lethbridge is located at 49° north latitude and 112° west longitude and covers an area of 127.19 square kilometres. It’s located southeast of Calgary on the Oldman River and is the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people in its 2019 municipal census. The first rail line was opened on August 28, 1885, by the Alberta Railway and Coal Company, which bought the North Western Coal and Navigation Company five years later. In 1896, local collieries were the largest coal producers in the Northwest Territories, with production peaking during World War I.
After the war, increasing oil and natural gas production gradually replaced coal production and the last mine in Leth bridge closed in 1957. The City of Lethbridge was founded in 1874 by William Lethbridge from whom the city derives its name. The whiskey trade led to the Cypress Hills Massacre of many native Assiniboine in 1873. In 1869, traders John J. Healy and Alfred B. Hamilton started a whiskey trading post at Fort Hamilton, near the future site of Leth Bridge. The North-West Mounted Police, sent to stop the trade and establish order, arrived at Fort Whoop-Up on October 9, 1874. In 1905, the city became the regional centre for Southern Alberta. Between 1907 and 1913, a development boom occurred in Leth Bridge, making it the main marketing, distribution and service centre in south Alberta. After World War II, drought drove farmers from their farms, and coal mining declined from its peak near Lethbridge. In 1967, Lethbridge College opened in April 1957 and the University of Leth bridge opened in 1967. In the mid-1980s, the CPR moved its rail yards in downtown Lethbridge to nearby Kipp, and Lethbridge ceased being a rail hub. In 2008, the Canadian Pacific Railway moved the divisional point of its Crowsnest Line from Fort Macleod to Lethbridge in 1905, and it became the city’s regional centre. In 2011, the City of Calgary became the third largest area in Alberta after Calgary and Edmonton, after Edmonton and Calgary.
You want to know more about Lethbridge?
This page is based on the article Lethbridge published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
