From the
Galt Historic Railway Park we have two vintage photos of the Coutts-Sweetgrass Depot, both taken in the era before it was a Canadian Pacific station. The default photo was taken in 1908, while the second photo was taken in the early 1890s, not long after the station was completed. In the old photos notice, at the far right, a water spout in one and a ladder in the other, these emanating from the water tower at which the steam locomotives were refilled with water. Notice, too, that by 1908 a small addition had been annexed to the north end of the station.
The railway the station served was the Great Falls & Canada Railway (GF&CR), which was built expressly to haul Lethbridge coal to Great Falls to feed smelters and railways in the US. When coal mines in Montana opened, hauling Lethbridge coal was no longer profitable and the line south of the border was purchased on October 30th, 1902 by the Great Northern (GN) to keep it out of the hands of the Canadian Pacific (CPR). On June 2nd, 1912 the CPR assumed control of the northern portion and the northern half of the station, with the Great Northern owning the south half. To almost everyone's surprise, on September 10th, 1916, the CPR cut their portion of the station away from the GN' portion and moved it a quarter mile north. It continued in service with the CPR until its closure in 1989. In 1999 it was purchased by the Great Canadian Plains Railway Society and moved to the 35 acre site on which the museum stands today. Now the centerpiece of the museum, this railway depot is unique in Alberta, even Western Canada, in that it is the only remaining station built straddling the Canada-USA border as a port of entry railway station.
Galt Historic Railway Park was created about 2000 as a site for the preservation and display of items and artefacts which recapture the history of the railway in Southern Alberta.
The Galt Historic Railway Park & Railway Heritage Interpretive Centre, collects, preserves, restores, exhibits and interprets artifacts which represent the history and social impact of the “steam” and “coal” eras in southern Alberta, with emphasis on Galt Railway System (1885 – 1912) and the 1890 International Train Station Depot from Coutts, Northwest Territories / Sweetgrass, Montana.
From the Galt Historic Railway Park
Today the depot has been completely restored and refurnished with furnishings and fixtures to recreate the interior as it would have appeared in 1890. When the depot was in operation in Coutts-Sweetgrass, the border ran through the waiting room and the station personnel worked in an office at the centre of the building. As such, the building was not only railway depot, but both Canadian and U.S. Customs building, as well.