Near the eastern end of the display area in the museum, just west of the picnic area, is a stone cairn bearing three polished aluminum plaques, one celebrating Alberta's centennial, another which discusses the contribution of the Lethbridge Correctional Centre to the development of the museum, and this one, a memorial to the principal actors in the development of Southern Alberta, Sir Alexander T Galt, Elliott Torrance Galt and Charles Alexander MaGrath.
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. While His father, Alexander, put together the plans and the business structures for their enterprises in Alberta, it was Elliott who actually oversaw much of the construction. In 1883 Galt resigned his post as Indian agent and became the general manager of the North-Western Coal and Navigation Company Limited,
overseeing construction of the company's coal mines, steamboats and later the Galt Railway System.
Charles Alexander Magrath, born in Ontario, went west at the age of 18 to become a foundational surveyor in Alberta, conducted foundation surveys of the Northwest Territories from 1878 until 1885. Alberta then was still part of the Northwest Territories, not becoming a province until 1905, when it and Saskatchewan were carved from the southern portion of the Northwest Territories. A member of the Northwest Territories Legislature from 1891–1898, Magrath was appointed a cabinet minister in 1897. Better remembered for his most notable contribution to the settling of Southern Alberta, Magrath has been called "The Father of Irrigation in Southern Alberta". It was he, along with brother in law Elliott Torrance Galt, who were the moving forces in the creation of the St. Mary's River irrigation system which brought irrigation water to tens of thousands of acres of semi arid land. In recognition of his importance to the settlement of Southern Alberta, the
Town of Magrath was named in his honor.
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
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 centrepiece 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.
Sir Alexander T Galt - Elliott Galt
Charles MaGrath
This site, known as Galt Historic Railway Park, is dedicated to the Original Founders of this area. These three men are responsible for the development of Southern Alberta, including this 1890 Coutts Sweetgrass International Train Station and Customs Depot. The plan of dividing the land with railway charters was proven very successful in Quebec by Sir Alexander Galt and the Canada Land Company. Promoting the sale of those parcels of land in this area to the 'land hungry" USA was again a proven formula as it had been in Eastern Canada by A. T. Galt's companies.
Ontario land surveyor Charles MaGrath was hired to provide divisions of saleable land into homesteaders, ranches, farms and businesses, a total of 1.5 million acres.
Communities were located at designated train stops for water and coal, including Lethbridge, developed from plans laid out by MaGrath. Names of towns and villages and their streets honoured the investors of Galt's Railway or Coal Mines. Irrigation was the last investment in the development of this area of Southern Alberta. Elliott Galt and Charles MaGrath presented their ideas of irrigation for this area using water from the St. Mary's River to the Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City Utah. Once an agreement was worked out, engineers and workers relocated to this area from Utah and began to work on the St. Mary's Irrigation System of canals with head gates at Kimball in 1900, just east of Cardston.
These three men set the pattern for transportation, communications, international trade, land development, irrigation and immigration for Southern Alberta. Today we still travel on the roads they designed, freight is still shipped on the trains which travel on the original rail beds laid down in the late 1800s. Crops are still irrigated from the original canal system laid out at the turn of the century. This parcel of land was originally part of the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company and is parallel to the St. Mary's River Railway, circa 1900. Galt Historic Railway Park is owned by members of the Great Canadian Plains Railway Society.
From the Memorial Plaque