1890

By 1890 the increasing need for coal to fuel the locomotives led to the building of a rail line from Medicine Hat to Lethbridge, and another from Lethbridge south to Great Falls. Galt’s Alberta Railway and Coal Company built the needed lines in exchange for over a million acres of land valued at $2.50 an acre, however the anticipated wealth to the Railway failed to materialize.

The new spur lines went through some of the most arid and forbidding land in western Canada. The vast wind-swept plains were considered unsuitable for anything but ranching, even by offering the land for $1.00 an acre if the developer buyers were found. The offer did however attract the attention of a high official of the Mormon church. John Taylor from Utah had a first-hand knowledge of the financial benefits of an efficient irrigation system.