Lethbridge Museum and Archives

High above the Oldman River valley, with a wall of windows facing the long steel line of the High Level Bridge, the Galt Museum and Archives is the regional museum of southern Alberta. It is also the museum that most people mean when they say the Lethbridge Museum and Archives. The museum sits at 502 1st Street South, on the western edge of downtown Lethbridge, on a bluff looking down at the river, the coulees and the prairie, and the location is part of the experience, since the views from the galleries and the café window show the same landscape that many of the exhibits describe.

The museum takes its name from Sir Alexander Galt, who with his son Elliott Galt founded the coal industry and railway that created Lethbridge in the 1880s. The Galt Hospital, opened in 1910 and named in his honour, once stood nearby, and the museum began in the 1960s as a way to preserve the hospital's building and the memory of the area's early days. The present building was completed in the early 2000s and retains part of the old hospital, so history is built into the structure itself.

The exhibitions follow the story of the region from the earliest times. The Blackfoot people, the Niitsitapi, have lived on these plains for thousands of years, and their history and culture are central to the museum's presentation, with their own voices and perspectives. The galleries move through the buffalo hunt, the whisky trade, the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, the opening of the coal mines, the railways and the great waves of immigration that brought settlers from Britain, Europe, China and Japan. Irrigation, which transformed the dry prairie into farmland, and the wartime internment of Japanese Canadians who were sent to work on southern Alberta sugar-beet farms, are among the topics that bring the history to life. Objects, photographs and archives, with changing exhibitions, give a detailed look at daily life.

The archives hold a large collection of documents and photographs, and researchers can make appointments to consult them. The museum also runs educational programmes, school activities and events.

Visitors can reach the museum by car, bus or on foot from downtown, and parking is available nearby. Check its website for hours, which vary by season and holiday, and for special exhibitions. The museum also operates Fort Whoop-Up in Indian Battle Park, so the two sites are often visited together. Allow one to two hours.