Lethbridge

City in southern Alberta, Canada, 200 km/120 mi south of Calgary; population (2006) 74,800. Lying in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, on the Oldman River, it is the centre of a large agricultural area and irrigation network. Industries include vegetable canning and freezing, flour milling, brewing, the production gas and oil, and the manufacture of trailers, building materials, and electronic equipment.

Lethbridge was founded in the early 1870s, incorporated as a town in 1890, and as a city in 1906. Coal was mined from 1874, and until 1885 it was known as Coalbanks because of the large coal deposits. It was renamed after William Lethbridge, the first president of the Northwest Coal and Navigation Company Ltd, who developed the mines. Coalmining was economically important to the town until 1965, when the last mine was closed. Lethbridge was the scene of a battle between the Cree and the Blackfeet in 1870, the last armed battle between American Indian peoples in North America.

The University of Lethbridge (1967) is here. The Nikka Yuko Centennial Japanese Gardens, a symbol of Canadian–Japanese friendship, were opened in Lethbridge in 1967.