living history
This year we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by
looking back at some milestones of Canadian history,
and how they involved and affected Southern Alberta
and made it the place we know and live in today.
This issue we highlight some of the famous and royal
people who have visited Lethbridge and Southern
Alberta throughout the years.
W H O I S T H E O N E P E R S O N you would most like to
come to Lethbridge so you could meet him or her? Or maybe
you have already met some famous and royal visitors who
have come to Lethbridge over the years, as many dignitaries,
royals, and persons of note have visited Lethbridge. Some
have come to work on movies and others for vacation. Some
have been deliberately invited for events and celebrations.
Who do you think the most famous visitors to Lethbridge
have been over the years?
Lethbridge has played host to dignitaries since the
1880s when the Governor General came to commemorate
the construction of the narrow-gauge railway between
Dunmore and Lethbridge. A grand event was held in the
fall of 1885 with the Marquess of Lansdowne in attendance.
The Marquess awarded a silver hammer to Sir Alexander
Galt as a memento of the occasion (sadly we don’t know
where the hammer is today).
During the event, the pomp and circumstance of a vice-
regal visit met the more relaxed ways of the West. In the
article Whoop-Up Country and its First Three-Footer, Patrick
Webb shared an encounter between Lord Lansdowne and a
local cowboy:
“While the ‘bowing and scraping’ was in progress, a
cowboy rode up to the edge of the platform, and without
dismounting called to his Lordship, ‘Hello, Governor, come
here!’ Lord Lansdowne, looking the picture of neatness
and aristocratic suavity, smiled, and walked over to the
‘puncher’, extended his small, delicate hand, which was
instantly enclosed in the rough, weather-beaten grip of
the cowboy, who said, ‘Put it thar, Governor, for forty days’,
then, with a wave of his hat turned his horse, dug in his
spurs, shouted, ‘So long, Governor,’ and disappeared in a
cloud of dust.”
It would be four years before another such visit. When
the Board of Trade started in 1889, the first major event it
organized was the visit of the Governor General Lord Stanley
of Preston. It was a blustery October day when Lord Stanley
came to town, and Charles Magrath’s welcoming words at
the train station were blown away by the wind, as was the
bunting people used to decorate their buildings. Elliott Galt
was able to provide lunch for the Governor General and his
wife in Coaldale, Galt’s home in the river valley. The lunch
was followed by a tour of the mine, and then there was a
banquet held at the Company Boarding House. As many
as twenty toasts were given that evening so people were
in a very good mood following the banquet. This visit was
a great opportunity to promote the community, especially
because one of the most pressing desires when the Board
of Trade started was to get the community incorporated as
a town. It was successful and Lethbridge was incorporated
in 1890.
Irrigation and development in Galt’s enterprises brought
the next Governor General to Lethbridge in 1900. Lord and
Lady Minto were touring western Canada and were invited
to Lethbridge by Elliott Galt to see the new irrigation
system. This was a low-key visit compared to past vice-regal
visits, and there were only small displays of bunting and
a small crowd to greet the couple. The Mintos stayed at
Elliott Galt’s residence and then had an opportunity to visit
Stirling and Magrath. Lord Minto had been in Lethbridge
15 years earlier in Lord Lansdowne’s party and commented
on the changes he noted in Lethbridge over those years. He
was impressed with how the community had grown.
The first member of the British royal family to come to
Lethbridge was Governor General the Duke of Connaught,
who was the son of Queen Victoria. While in the city, he was
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