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Alberta's third city, LETHBRIDGE
is booming on the back of oil, gas and some of the province's
most productive agricultural land; none of which is of much consequence
to people passing through, whom the city attempts to sidetrack
with the Nikka Yuko Centennial Gardens (mid-May
to June & Sept daily 9am-5pm; July-Aug daily 9am-9pm; closed
Oct to mid-May; $4; tel 328-3511) in its southeastern corner at
7th Avenue and Mayor Macgrath Drive in Henderson Lake Park. Built
in 1967 as a symbol of Japanese and Canadian amity, the gardens
were a somewhat belated apology for the treatment of Japanese-Canadians
during World War II, when 22,000 were interned - 6000 of them
in Lethbridge. Four tranquil Japanese horticultural landscapes
make up the gardens, along with a pavilion of cypress wood handcrafted
in Japan perpetually laid out for a tea ceremony.
Far removed from the gardens' decorum is
Fort Whoop-Up (June-Aug Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun noon-5pm;
Sept-May Tues-Fri 10am-4pm, Sun 1-4pm; $2.50; tel 329-0444) at
Indian Battle Park (Scenic Drive at 3rd Ave), a reconstruction
of the wild whiskey-trading post set up in 1869 by American desperadoes
from Fort Benton, Montana (the first of several in the region).
It became the largest and most lucrative of the many similar forts
which sprang up illegally all over the Canadian prairies, and
led directly to the arrival of the North West Mounted Police in
1874. Aboriginal peoples came from miles around to trade anything
- including the clothes off their backs - for the lethal hooch,
which was fortified by grain alcohol and supplemented by ingredients
such as red peppers, dye and chewing tobacco. The fort was also
the scene of the last armed battle in North America between aboriginal
peoples (fought between the Cree and Blackfoot nations in 1870).
Lethbridge's third significant sight is the
Sir Alexander Galt Museum (daily 10am-4.30pm; donation;
tel 320-3898) at the western end of 5th Avenue South off Scenic
Drive, one of Canada's better small-town museums. It's named after
a Canadian high commissioner who in 1882 financed a mine that
led to the foundation of Lethbridge. Revamped at vast expense
in 1985, the museum offers an overview of the city's history,
with displays that cover coal mining, irrigation, immigration
and the shameful internment episodes during the 1940s. There are
also a couple of galleries devoted to art and other temporary
exhibitions.
