Designed for tourists and locals alike, the Lethbridge Historical Society and local historian Belinda Crowson have unveiled a brand-new tour program entitled, Hidden History of Lethbridge Walking Tours.
In July and August, the tours will run most Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings.
Several new tours are being offered this year, including Shadows of Lethbridge: Historic murders and crime walking tour, Echoes of 1925: Cemetery stories from a year ago, Haunted History: Lethbridge ghost tour and Stepping into the Past: Downtown Lethbridge tour.
Crowson says the idea was to step it up this summer by offering activities for visitors and locals to learn about Lethbridge history, by taking the best of previous tours and adding some new tales to tempt the palettes of history and true crime aficionados.
“Hopefully people will have an amazing summer learning our history,” adds Crowson.
Last year, the Shadows of Lethbridge tour was tested on society members, Crowson explains. “And they said, ‘take it public.’”
“They were surprised by the number of murders. We always think we don’t have that exciting of a history, but we certainly do.”
Crowson has been researching murders across southern Alberta. “I know there’s a lot of interest in true crime. We can’t cover all the murders, but you’ll learn about some of the more interesting historic murders that took place in the area we now call Downtown Lethbridge.”
There’s a certain officer from the city police back in those historic days, Crowson teases, that keeps showing up in the tales.
Crowson says the historical society has been around Lethbridge for decades. “Our sole purpose is we’re a group of volunteers who want to research and study the history of southwestern Alberta, and share it with the public.”
“We’re well-known through our plaque program and our publications. We’ve been doing tours for members and small groups of the public, but now we’re taking it into a much larger way. We’re hoping people will find our history as exciting and interesting as we do.”
Crowson will also be working on a new book on the murders of southern Alberta. “It’s a social history. Trying to understand the background of people and how it all connects.”
Crowson has also switched up the cemetery tours this year, as well. “I’ve been doing cemetery tours for 20 years. One thing you will notice is there’s some of the older cemetery tours, but I introduced one called, ‘Echoes of 1925.’ The only thing that is going to tie everybody together is they all died in 1925, and see what we can learn about Lethbridge 100 years ago.”
Event information and tickets can be found online at lethbridgehistory.org/events.
