Welcome to Lethbridge!

The windy city with a rich mining and agriculture history. The first inhabitants of the Lethbridge area were the Blackfoot, Tsuut’ina, Cree, Nakoda, and Kutenai. The land was called Sikoohkotoki, meaning black rock, by the Blackfoot due to the coal they found in the area. The first European settlement was in 1874 due to the whiskey trade and the establishment of Fort Whoop-Up. Lethbridge started as a small mining town called Coalbanks, named for the coal mines on the banks of the Oldman River. Coalbanks moved from the river bottom to the prairie level in 1885 and was officially renamed Lethbridge that same year.

Lethbridge was incorporated as a town in 1890 and incorporated as a city in 1906, shortly after Alberta became a province of Canada. Many think the name is a reference to the High Level Bridge. Instead, land developer Sir Alexander Galt, liked to entice investors by promising to name streets and towns in their honour. Lethbridge was named after Sir William Lethbridge, an English lawyer and businessman, who had never even set foot in Lethbridge or even Canada.