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. The railway the station served was the Great Falls & Canada Railway (GF&CR), which was built, along with the station, in 1890, expressly to haul Lethbridge coal to Great Falls to feed smelters and railways in the US. When coal mines in Montana opened, hauling Lethbridge coal was no longer profitable and the line south of the border was purchased on October 30th, 1902 by the Great Northern (GN) to keep it out of the hands of the Canadian Pacific (CPR). On June 2nd, 1912 the CPR assumed control of the northern portion and the northern half of the station, with the Great Northern owning the south half. To almost everyone's surprise, on September 10th, 1916, the CPR cut their portion of the station away from the GN' portion and moved it a quarter mile north. It continued in service with the CPR until its closure in 1989. In 1999 it 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 unique in Alberta, even Western Canada, in that it is the only remaining station built straddling the Canada-USA border as a port of entry railway station.
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.
On a stone cairn along the railway track to the east of the station are a set of aluminum plaques imparting some of the story of the railway, the depot and the people responsible for their construction. The following text is from an Alberta Historical Marker detailing a bit of the story of the depot.
Celebrating Alberta's 100th
1905-2005
The Coutts Sweetgrass International Depot which straddled tie Canada/U.S.A border between the District of Alberta and the State of Montana was completed on October 1, 1890.
Owned and operated by the Alberta Railway and Coal Company and its American partner, the Great Falls and Canada Railway, it served as the region's pert of entry housing Canadian and American customs, a telegraph office, offices for both railways and a lunch bar.
Thls station is the only remaining international depot of the three built in western Canada and the last Galt Railway station in existence. Sir Alexander Galt's narrow gauge irailway system brought settlers to southern Alberta and played an integral role in the development of the coal industry. Many thousands of families passed through the depot on their way to homesteads in Alberta and beyond.
This unique legacy of the past has been carefully restored the Great Canadian Railway Society with the generous support of the Province of Alberta, the Canadian Pacific Railway and many others. The members of the Society present this historical project as a celebration of Alberta's 100th anniversary to enrich our understanding of the past.