Medicine Hat Attractions

Medicine Hat

Medicine Hat, on the South Saskatchewan River, is Alberta's fifth largest city. It gets its name from an Indian legend. During a battle between the Cree and the Blackfoot the Cree medicine man's headdress was blown off into the river. This was taken to be a bad omen by the Cree braves, who fled, and over time "the place where the medicine man lost his hat" became just plain "Medicine Hat". Rudyard Kipling described it as the place "with the whole of Hell as its cellar" when he visited the town in 1907, because enormous natural gas deposits had already been found when drilling for water in 1883.

This natural gas today forms the basis for Medicine Hat's thriving petrochemical industry. Underground rivers also contribute to its intensive horticulture, the growing of flowers and vegetables in enormous greenhouses and highly irrigated fields.

South-eastern Alberta's ranching tradition is reflected in July's annual Agricultural Show and especially its rodeo and stampede.

Sights

There is a downtown walking tour which takes in buildings still left in the city center from the turn of the century.