Lethbridge Attractions

Lethbridge

Lethbridge, on the Oldman River, mainly owes its prosperity to the oil and gas industry. Other important local industries are tourism and farming (livestock, corn, sugar beet and vegetables).

Lethbridge was founded in the 1870s when it was called Coalbank, a reference to the coal found nearby. It soon became a center for farming and, at the turn of the century, was the site of Canada's first large-scale irrigation system.

Nearby townships like Coaldale and Coalhurst are reminders of the fact that up until 1965 coal was still being mined in the region's deep valleys where previously there had been only outposts set up in 1869 for the benefit of the unscrupulous liquor runners.

Highway 4 runs south-east from Lethbridge to the border crossing into the United States.