Lethbridge

The city developed from drift mines opened by Nicholas Sheran (1874) and the North Western Coal and Navigation Company, Limited (1882), whose president was William Lethbridge.

Names that have been used to identify the Lethbridge area include the Blackfoot Aksaysim, also transliterated as Aksiiksahko or Steep Banks, Mek-kio-towaghs, also Miiksskoowa, variously translated as Painted Rock, Red Painted Rock, or Medicine Stone, Assini-etomochi, also Asinaawaiitomottsaawa, or Where We Slaughtered the Crees, and Sik-ooh-kotok, Black/Rocks or Coal, the Sarcee Chadish-kashi, Black/Rocks; the Cree Kuskusukisay-guni, Black/Rocks; the Stony Ipubin-saba-akabin, or Digging Coal; and the European names, Coalbanks, Sherans, or Sheran's Ferry, The Crossing, The Colliery, Newlethbridge, Lethbridge Colliery, Upper and Lower Town, Coalhurst, and, officially since October 15, 1885, Lethbridge (The name Lethbridge was in common, if unofficial, use for the river bottom community at least as early as May 1884).

Before settlement, the area where Lethbridge is located was known as The Arid Region. When geological surveys around 1880 revealed an abundance of coal, it was called The Belly River Coal District. After the Galts introduced irrigation to counter the Arid Region image around 1900, the locality was called the Irrigated District. Finally, as an aid to land sales after the rush of dryland settlement started about 1905, the non-irrigable portion was called The Winter Wheat Lands.