The Place:
Galt Historic Railway Park was created about 2000 as a museum 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
In that year the venerable old Coutts, Alberta/Sweetgrass, Montana railway depot 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 probably unique in Alberta, possibly all of Canada, in that it was built straddling the Canada-USA border. The depot was built in 1890 by Sir Alexander Galt and his son Elliott Galt as partners in a consortium of investors from Canada, England and the United States which founded the Galt Railway system, the Galt Canal, coal mines and other enterprises.
As one of only two "Lunch Stations" along the railway line which ran from Lethbridge, Alberta to Great Falls, Montana, it continued in operation as built until September of 1916, when the northern part of the station was moved away from the border into Coutts, where it was used by the Canadian Pacific Railway until its closing in 1989. In 2000 the Coutts half of the depot was rejoined with the Sweetgrass section as the two were moved to the museum. The station is the last of its type remaining in Western Canada.
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.
Along with its historic railway station, the museum holds a collection of rolling stock and several little speeders, which were used for railway maintenance. When we visited, the rolling stock on display to that date were a CPR cattle car, number 277324, a 1941 CPR caboose, number 436986, about a half dozen passenger and mail cars and the half dozen or so speeders. The speeders are, for the most part (if not all) in running condition and used to give rides to museum visitors.
The museum also has on the grounds a 1920 CPR bunkhouse, also from Coutts. Though the museum is only open June through August, one may visit visit
by appointment throughout the year.
The Person:
A father of Canadian Confederation, Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt was born in London, England on September 6th, 1817 the youngest of three sons of novelist John Galt & Elizabeth Tilloch. Galt first arrived in Canada as a clerk with the British American Land Company in Quebec. His organizational abilities and business acumen eventually led him to a seat in parliament and later the presidency of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway. When his son Elliott Torrance Galt, then an Indian affairs officer in Regina, revealed to him the existence of large coal deposits at what is now the city of Lethbridge, Alberta he developed mines to extract the coal and transportation systems to take it to market.
His health failing, Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt died in Montreal on September 19th, 1893, the object of an imposing state funeral.
Following are some highlights of Sir Alexander's life, from the Galt Historic Railway Park.
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt
He would make his first introduction to Canada in 1834, as a junior clerk in the British American Land Company at Sherbrooke, Quebec. He rose step by step until in 1844, he became Company Commissioner. He found its affairs in confusion, and by his ability and understanding brought them to order and prosperity. His business success attracted notice, and in 1849 he was elected to Parliament for the County of Sherbrooke. He sat through the stormy session of 1849, when the Parliament buildings in Montreal were burned, after the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill. This seemed to sicken young Galt of politics for the time, for he retired to private life.
During the next four years Galt became President of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway, and extricated it from its difficulties by amalgamation with the Grand Trunk Railway, and participated in the construction of the Grand Trunk railway line from Toronto to Sarnia. From 1852 to 1859, he was a director of the Grand Trunk Railway. By 1853 he was back in Parliament, where he found scope for his talents in financial, trade and commercial questions.
There had been discussion of union of the British American Provinces for years, but Galt forced the issue by his speech in the Assembly at Toronto on July 6, 1858. He then outlined roughly the plan of union which was subsequently adopted. He declared that unless a union was formed the Province of Canada would inevitably drift into the United States...
From now on, for the next two years, Galt was a virile leader in promoting the cause of union. At the Quebec Conference, he played an important part in finally adjusting the financial relations of the Provinces under the union scheme, a point which at one time brought deadlock and almost wrecked the convention. The spade work for Confederation in Canada had now been done, though much remained as yet to reconcile Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Galt had his part in the mission to London in 1865. All was then smooth, but in August, 1866, he startled the country by resigning as Finance Minister on the determination of the Government not to proceed with the Lower Canada education bill.
Notwithstanding his resignation from the Cabinet, Galt’s abilities were requisitioned for the final stages of the Confederation bill, and he accompanied the Ministerial delegation to England in the fall of 1866 to draft the British North America Act. He was reelected, and entered the first Confederation Cabinet as Minister of Finance.
The 1880s also witnessed Galt’s return to the business world, this time in western Canada. In 1881, while he was living in London, he had been informed by his eldest son, Elliott Torrance Galt, at the time assistant commissioner of Indian affairs in Regina, of the existence of coal deposits in the south of what is now the province of Alberta. After inspecting the region, on 7 September 1882 Galt founded the North-Western Coal and Navigation Company Limited (NWC&NC) with William Lethbridge, a lawyer and partner in the firm W.H. Smith booksellers, as the first president of the company. Although he never came to Canada, Lethbridge left a legacy in southern Alberta through the city that bears his name. One of his aims was to supply coal to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which was still under construction west of Winnipeg, and to supply the settlers that would soon arrive out west. To transport the coal Galt and his partners first set up a system of steamships the “Alberta”, the “Baroness” and the “Minnow” and barges on the Bow and South Saskatchewan rivers that operated in 1883 and 1884. However, the rivers were shallow with numerous sand bars, and an unpredictable current that it sometimes took the steamships 5 days to travel between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat! A more stable transportation system was needed, and the NWC&NC turned to a narrow gauge railway line.
After 1890, Galt, whose health had become delicate, scarcely ever left Montreal and his residence on Rue de la Montagne. Early in 1893 he had to undergo a tracheotomy because of throat cancer. Unable to speak, he communicated by writing. He died shortly before dawn on September 19th, 1893. Two days later an imposing funeral was held in Montreal, but the service was celebrated in Galt’s own home by a Toronto minister, John Potts, an old friend of his, who also delivered the funeral oration. He was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery.
Galt was seen as a complex man of worth who had succeeded brilliantly in several very different fields of activity. Dr Potts observed: “He belonged to a superior order. He was a deep thinker, a distinguished economist, an enterprising and courageous businessman.” Others called to mind his agreeable and flowing eloquence and the attention his speeches on financial matters commanded. “His writings bear the stamp of purity and elegance,” it was said.
From the Galt Historic Railway Park