About

Introduction

Our city did not always go by the name of Lethbridge. In late 1860s the presence of coal in the area led the city earning the moniker, Coal Banks.

Today, Lethbridge School District No. 51 put the Coalbanks name back into the city’s consciousness by naming the new, Copperwood-area school, Coalbanks Elementary School. It seemed fitting for there to be an elementary school which celebrates the rich history of the city.

Speaking of history, in the 1860s Europeans translated the Blackfoot term Sik-ooh-kotok, as The Coal Banks. The Coal Banks referred especially to the outcropping of coal found along the coulees in what is now the Lethbridge river valley. Early newspaper reports and writings ran the words together into Coalbanks. However, while The Coal Banks is the coal seam itself, Coalbanks is actually the name of the hamlet or settlement that developed in the river valley in 1882/1883, as the coal operation started here. Initially, Coalbanks was a seasonal operation with many of the coal miners returning east each winter. Unofficially the community started to be called Lethbridge as early as 1884 but it wasn’t until 1885 when the townsite was surveyed on the prairie level that the name Lethbridge was formally adopted.

Vision Statement

Building community through nurturing relationships and developing global, empathetic citizens.

Construir una comunidad cultivada por relaciones afectivas y el desarrollo de ciudadanos con perspectiva global y empática.