Lethbridge is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. The largest city in Southern Alberta, the fourth largest city in terms of population and the third largest city in the province. Located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, on the Oldman River, southeast of the province’s largest city, Calgary.

Lethbridge is the commercial, economic, transportation and industrial center of Southern Alberta. The city arose at the end of the 19th century as a settlement near coal mines. The city has a university and campuses of two colleges located in Southern Alberta, theaters, museums and sports centers.

History
Until the 19th century, the area on which Lethbridge is now located was inhabited by various Indian peoples, in particular, the Blackfoot, Sarsi, Cree and Assiniboine. In 1869, the US Army banned the sale of liquor to the Blackfoot in neighboring Montana. Thereafter, two merchants, John Healy and Alfred Hamilton, began selling whiskey in Canada, establishing a trading post near present-day Lethbridge and naming it Fort Hamilton. In 1873, the sale of whiskey led to the Assiniboine Massacre, known as the Cypress Hill Massacre. The Northwest Mounted Police, called in to stop the liquor trade and restore order, arrived at the fort on October 9, 1874, and took control of it for 12 years.
In 1874, entrepreneur Nicholas Sheeran opened coal mines here, and in 1882, the English North-Western Coal and Navigation Company took up coal mining. The company’s president was William Lethbridge, after whom the city was named. Lethbridge itself has never been to Canada, and the city is named after him in the hope that the company will further invest in the city’s infrastructure. By the beginning of the 20th century, about 150 people worked in the mines, producing 300 tons of coal daily. It was the largest coal operation in Western Canada and production peaked during the First World War. After the war, coal as an energy source was gradually replaced by oil and gas, and the coal industry in Lethbridge entered a crisis. The last mine at Lethbridge closed in 1957.

On August 28, 1885, the railway was opened in Lethbridge, built by the Alberta Railway and Coal Company. Five years later, the latter bought Severo-Zapadnaya Coal and navigation company. The opening of the railroad led to an economic boom in Lethbridge, associated with the settlement of southern Alberta by immigrants. In 1905, the Canadian Pacific Railway made Lethbridge one of its largest stations, and in 1909 opened the Lethbridge Viaduct, one of the largest in the world. In the 1980s, most of the goods station was withdrawn from the city.

Between 1907 and 1913, the city experienced a booming development that resulted in it becoming Southern Alberta’s largest service center. Projects initiated by City Hall such as the construction of a power plant, a water purification plant, a tram system (closed in 1947) and a fairground, as well as rising property prices and intensive construction, led to the transformation of Lethbridge from a mining village into a big city. Between the world wars, however, the city experienced an economic downturn, mainly due to the crisis of the coal industry. After World War II, the irrigation of agricultural land around Lethbridge again led to an economic upswing and population growth for the city. Lethbridge College opened in April 1957 and the University of Lethbridge opened in 1967.