In 1900, as irrigation was developing in the area
south of Lethbridge, a line called the St. Mary
River Railway was started from Stirling in the
direction of Cardston. The narrow gauge track
reached Spring Coulee that year. When the St.
Mary River Railway was opened, the company
ran a special train to Spring Coulee and back,
carrying representatives of the Lethbridge Board
of Trade on a goodwill tour. Between Raymond
and Magrath, it crossed the Pothole Creek on
a low level bridge located somewhat south of a
high wooden trestle which is visible from #5
highway, west of Welling ( 2 years ago this
bridge was done away with and replaced with
huge culverts). It took another couple of years
to reach Cardston due to extra work of building
a high wooden trestle over Pinepound Creek,
just west of Spring Coulee. Tri-weekly service
commenced on Nov. 28 1909.

FLASHBACK: 1903: Bridge at Spring Coulee
almost complete and rails extend entire distance
across.

The line reached Cardston on June 25, 1903.

In 1904 the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company
was incorporated and was an amalgamation of the
Alberta Railway Coal Company, the St. Mary River
Railway Company and the Canada Northwest
Irrigation Company. The gauge was widened to
standard about 1906 and the Canadian Pacific
Railway acquired the line when it took over the
A.R. and I. on January 1, 1912.

N.B. This narrow gauge track was sold to the
White Pass and Yukon railway for a line which
runs from Whitehorse to Skagway and is still
in use today.

The last passenger trains were taken off in
September, 1949 although mixed trains continued
to operate until September, 1955. The agency
was closed April 23, 1959. Since that date carload
service by rail has been provided and for a time
highway vehicles continued to provide package
service to the community. The last steam engine
to operate through Spring Coulee was in 1957.

Following is a list of station agents for some
thirty years:

C.S. Barter1928-1934
D McNabb 1935-1936
E.H.Brown 1937
E.L.lnman 1938- 1945
G.A. Gillies1946-1948
J.J. Rushton1948- 1954
W. Bakka 1955- 1956
K. Clark 1957
W.E. Metcalfe1948-1959

N.B. This information came from the Galt Museum,
R.F.P. Bowman and L.A. Hill. superintendents for
the C.P.R. in Lethbridge.

From other sources: Mr. Wurtz was station agent
in 1903 and Jack Kershaw in the early 1920's.

Maintenance crews were hired to look after the
tracks at each agency. The first section foreman
at Spring Coulee was George Gygi, followed by Paul
Dick and then William Baraniuk who remained
here for thirty three years. Tony Kubic and Jake
Tschetter also worked with them.

Return to Towns, Villages, Hamlets, and Cities