MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Lethbridge was being projected as a progressive town with
unlimited potential for future expansion. The main stay of
the town's economy was the North Western Coal and
Navigation Company (N.W.C. & N. Co.). The company
depended almost entirely upon the sale of coal to the
C.P.R. via the narrow gauge railway it had built to Dunmore
on the C.P.R.'s main line near Medicine Hat. The C.P.R.
was built on the premise of a rapidly expanding prairie
population. However, the flood of settlers did not materialize
and the N.W.C. & N. Co. had to increase consumer demand
by expanding beyond the limits of a small western Canadian
market.
To meet the objective, Elliott Galt persuaded several powerful
Montana investors to help build a railway from Lethbridge
to the smelting industries of western Montana. The project
was delayed several years because the C.P.R. had a
monopoly on all railway construction within 30 miles of the
international boundary. By the spring of 1889, however,
Parliament had repealed C. P. R.'s monopoly and approved
a charter for a narrow gauge railway from Lethbridge to the
boundary to meet an American line coming up from Great Falls.
It also granted Galts company a 6400 acre per mile subsidy.
With these concerns, Galt transferred all assets and liabilities
of the N.W.C. & N. Co. to a newly capitalized London-based
company, the Alberta Railway and Coal Company, which built
the Lethbridge to Montana railway during the summer of 1890.
The narrow gauge railway paralleled the old Whoop Up Trail.
It wasn't built to Montana as a colonization road. The primary
object in building the road was to open up markets for
Lethbridge coal. There were mixed trains passenger and
freight - running daily from Calgary to Great Falls and back
as early as 1893.
In 1901 the narrow gauge was converted to standard gauge.
However, a third rail made it possible for narrow gauge trains
to continue hauding until 1912.
The various companies set up by the Galts to exploit the coal
discoveries, to build railroads and to construct irrigation
systems were amalgamated in 1904 as the Alberta Railway and
Irrigation Company. In 1912 Elliott Galt sold the A. R. & I. to
the C. P. R.
In 1931 daily passenger service was cut to three days a week
and in 1933 mixed train service was substituted. In 1955
the line was reduced to freight service only, which it remains
at the present time.
Acknowledgments: Lethbridge: A Centennial History, by Alex
Johnston/Andy den Otter
The old tracks used to go down what is now known as Mayor Magrath
Drive. The tracks hooked up with a series of 18 bridges. These
18 bridges were condemned in 1897 and in 1909 they were dismantled.
The timbers were completely rotten when pulled out
In the area south of Lethbridge and out to St. Mary's River there
were 3 bridges, one was on a curve and the trestle was 1 mile long.
This was near Fort Whoop-Up. There are piers that can be seen
there today but not in the water anymore as the river has been
diverted.
Just before the 1 mile trestle, was St. Mary's Station with a water
tank. They had a man there who patrolled the network of bridges
for fire. This was caused by sparks from the smoke stack. The
end of one bridge did catch fire and it was 2 days before the trains
were running again.
Big bull snakes used to crawl onto the bridges to sun themselves.
The workmen who built and later maintained these bridges were
warned to watch for them.
The big bridge west of Lethbridge was completed in 1909 to
replace this other network of bridges. It was considered cheaper
to built one steel bridge than to replace 18 wooden ones.
The engines could pull 835 tons over the old ones and when
the new bridge was finished the engines could pull 2, 455 tons
or almost 3 times as much. It was built at a cost of $1,335,000.00.
It took 20 tons of steel and 625 flat cars to bring it to Lethbridge.
The steel was ordered and supplied by the Krupp Works of
Germany. It was all cut so well that each rivet hole fitted,
A Mr. Hamilton was killed just off pier 45 when he fell to his death.
The men were taken up in an elevator to work but one, a Mr.
Cleaves, used to go up the spans on his own, and fell 105 feet,
slipped into some snow, and only broke both wrists.
A Mr. Fiddler was dismissed from the C.P.R. during the building
of the bridge under Rule G. This stated that drinking or
drunkenness on the job was not allowed. This man's job was
to pour alcohol which was used in the compressor to keep it
cool when the rivets were driven. The men began to complain
that the pressure was not being kept up and of course it
was discovered that Mr. Fiddler had been mixing it with
water and drinking it.
A 15 foot piece of rail fell from the top of the bridge toward the
east end. -It weighed 1200 pounds and buried itself to within
4 feet of its length. It has been left there to this day.
The ties and other wood used in the construction of the 18
bridges were brought to the site from the Porcupine ffills.
There was one steel bridge over the Belly River that was left
until 1939 when it was dismantled and the metal reused during
the 2nd World War.
St. Mary's Butte was also called The Little Hill. The small hill
was on the east side of the St. Mary River where St. Mary's
station was located and the former Crow's Nest Pass railway
crossed the river by a 2,933 foot long wooden bridge.
In 1837 the butte was the centre of a scene of unimaginable
fear and horror when possibly as many as 6,000 people,
two thirds of the Blood and Blackfoot tribes, died of smallpox
in the general vicinity.
Acknowledgement: Lethbridge Place Names by Alex Johnston
& Barry R. Peat
'Tea Kettle' was the derogatory term given the early narrow
gauge (three footer) railway, by teamsters and others.
Miscellaneous Histories