livinghistory
while Mr. J. Stevenson was cleaning out the air shaft of No.
6 drift, he came across a piece of rock too heavy to lift, and
proceeded to break it so as to get it out of the way. On
splitting the rock a small reptile was found secreted in a
small hole in the centre. When first found it appeared to
have no eyes and was of a cream color, but soon after being
brought into the light the eyes appeared and the color also
began to change, until now it is of a dark brown and to all
appearances is a small toad. Mr. Stevenson took the little
creature home and is taking care of it, and if it lives will
probably send it to the World’s Fair in Chicago next year.
From the strata of rock in which it was found, its age is
estimated at between 2,000 and 3,000 years.”
City was not sure which one the province would decide to
build, and because of government bureaucracy, it was a
considerable time before the province made any decision.
Unwilling to wait for the province’s decision, and certain
that the decision would be in favour of a prison, the City
started to build a prison on the coulees of the west side.
However, when the province finally decided, it was in
favour of a university. What was the City to do? With the
building already started, they simply kept the design and
adapted it into a university. The proof of this, if needed,
comes from the amount of concrete used in the building
and in the location and size of the windows.
Bridge safety in question
The supervising engineer responsible for the High Level
Bridge, John Edward Schwitzer, had no faith in the bridge’s
reliability and felt that it would fail. He tried to stop
people from using it, and when they would not listen to his
appeals, he went to the middle of the bridge and jumped
off, committing suicide just minutes before it opened to
train traffic.
What do you think? Was the university originally supposed to be a prison,
or was it always meant to be a university?
Fiction. The University of Lethbridge was built as a
university, and a university was the only planned type of
building for this site. However, this myth, which may be
new to some people, has been shared among students at
the university, and is particularly popular with students who
are not from Lethbridge.
Fact or fiction? The supervising engineer on the High Level Bridge didn’t
trust its structural integrity.
Fiction. There is no written evidence of anyone involved
in the engineering or design of the High Level Bridge
deliberately jumping from the bridge because they believed
it would fail. Three workers did die during the construction
of the bridge, but all of these deaths were accidental.
Schwitzer, who was the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Assistant
Chief Engineer, died of pneumonia two years later after
having worked on the spiral tunnels near Field, B.C.
Building a university or prison
When the City of Lethbridge decided in the late 1960s
that it was vital to expand Lethbridge across the river and
have a west side, it was thought that the best way to grow
the new community was with a large building project. So
the City sent in requests for permits and funding to the
Province of Alberta for either a university or a prison. The
18 LETHBRIDGELIVING.COM
Art installation
Inside the Centre for the Arts at the University of
Lethbridge, is a statue entitled Moses that graces the
building within the confines of the stairwell. However, a
very embarrassing episode occurred around it. When the
statue was first placed, it was accidentally set upside down.
No one noticed for years until the artist came to visit and
was appalled to see his creation violated in this manner. The
university had to bring in a crane to carefully turn the piece.
Fiction. Moses, which was originally set outside before
the Centre for the Arts was constructed, is so large it had to
be placed before the roof of the building was complete, and
there is no way it could be turned over once the building
was finished.
Something’s rotten
In the early years of the 20th century, a trainload of
beef was shipped from Lethbridge to Montreal in a
refrigerated train car. When the train arrived in Montreal,
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