It was a great summer for the Lethbridge Historical Society
By Lethbridge Herald on October 3, 2025.
Editor,
With school back in session and the leaves falling, I would like to take an opportunity to share some feel-good stories with our community.
It is an oft-spoken cliché that history will repeat itself until we learn from it, but history is not filled only with terrible lessons, but rather it is rich with stories of survival, strength, and humour.
Each summer, the Lethbridge Historical Society presents a series of entertaining and educational walking tours, each focusing on a different area, landmark, demographic, or important event in our local past. Summer 2025 saw one of our best-attended tour series’ in recent memory, with over 500 guests – locals and tourists alike – joining over the course of two months to learn more about those who have shaped the Lethbridge we know today.
We also hosted our first-ever cocktail party, sampling some of the most popular gin cocktails from the early 1900s and diving into the history and legacy of the alcohol trade throughout southern Alberta.
Special thanks to Belinda Crowson for continuing to share her knowledge with us through the walking tours – your stamp on the Lethbridge heritage sector will never be erased; to Stephanie Laine Hamilton for her extraordinary efforts to be with us for the cocktail party – it\’s always a party when you spend an evening with us; and to the LHS Board who pour their hearts and souls into the organization through event planning, governance, outreach, and fundraising – without you, this would be an overwhelming task, but you make it possible.
Our work as the LHS is to collect and preserve the stories that matter to us now so that future generations can get a glimpse into a long-gone society, and to share those same stories from bygone eras to current generations of people in hopes of learning from them.
History serves as a reminder of where and who we have been, what we have experienced, and how we have grown and developed through time, guiding us to build a future rooted in resilience, wisdom, and hope for all generations yet to come.
Remember: history doesn’t always mean old and boring!
Lorien Johansen
President, Lethbridge Historical Society
-10
Please don’t forget First Nations Peoples histories, and the various immigrant peoples who have histories too.