The Galt Museum has lined up some fascinating programs to support their brand new exhibit on Southern Alberta dinosaurs, beginning with the first Café Galt presentation this Wednesday (Oct. 21) featuring Cardston teacher Shayne Tolman.
Tolman discovered the Wally’s Beach  archeological site in the lake bed of  St. Mary Reservoir, located just outside of Lethbridge while on a family outing in 1996.
In doing so, he uncovered a veritable treasure trove of fossils and  archaeological knowledge.
“They have uncovered some incredible stuff there,” Tolman enthused.
“Every time the wind blows, it uncovers something new,”  Tolman said, who has been exploring the site for 11 years. There are all kinds of rare, one-of-a-kind fossils as well as woolly mammoth, camel  and saber tooth tiger tracks.
“Those are just in the dirt, they aren’t fossilized. Because of the wind, there  are  layers up on layers of them.
 And that’s living history, when you look at bones, that’s dead history, if you can call it that, but here you can actually see how the animals interacted with each other,” he said, emphasizing it is illegal to explore and remove artifacts from sites without  the proper permits.
“And you can see human tracks  interacting with these extinct animals,” he said adding a couple years ago, some high school students were recruited to help create a 80  square metre cast of some of these tracks.
“That’s a story in itself,” he said adding he will be speaking about  the background, discovery and scientific investigation of one of North America’s most significant prehistorical sites.
“ It’s great to get these students  involved  in local heritage, not just archeology or paleontology,” he said. Because  the site is so fragile, the only time Tolman can explore it is during the winter and that’s only when it isn’t covered with snow.

If the In the Shadow Under the Bridge festival, Sept. 5 piques your curiosity for more Bridge trivia, then check out the third Cafe Galt presentation, Sept. 8.
Belinda Crowson will debunk some of the myths surrounding Lethbridge’s steel runged railroad icon during the last Café Gault presentation about the bridge at the Gault Museum.
 The presentation will  help draw the museum’s latest display focusing on the Bridge’s 100th birthday to a close.
“One thing we get asked a lot is if we’re called Lethbridge because we’re located left of the bridge,” Crowson chuckled.
“A lot of stupid and illegal things and highly dangerous things are said to have occurred around the bridge. Did people fly planes through it? Of course  the older planes had shorter wingspans. Did people cycle across it? Does the ghost of the man who designed the bridge still haunt it?” she pondered, suggesting some of the strange stories she will tell about the bridge.

Blackfoot Cultural Society  

Val Good Rider Exhibit 

403.327.6828     Mon - Sat 9:30am - 5:30pm 

      Blackfoot Art Gallery & Gift Shop, Lethbridge Centre   

      Runs until September 17 

Bowman Arts Centre  

Bridging Divides: Community Exhibition 

403.327.2813     Main Gallery 

      811 5th Ave. So. 

      Runs until September 19 

      Letters From the Edge:Photographs~John Macdonald  

        Music Room 

      811 5th Ave. So. 

      Runs until September 14 

      Fluid Visions: Work from the Art Program 

      of the Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre 

      Yates Gallery 

      10th St. & 4th Ave. 

      Runs until September 19 

Galt Museum & Archives  The Mighty Bridge 

403.320.3954     Moods of the Bridge 

      Art of the Bridge 

      Riveting Photos: Landscapes of the Bridge 

      Mon - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun + Hol. 1pm - 5pm (until Aug. 31) 

      502 1 St. So. 

      runs until September 20    

Lethbridge Public Library        

  Allied Arts Council Display ~ 

403.380.7336    Mon-Fri 9am - 9pm, Sat 9am - 5pm, Sun 1 - 5pm 

      810 5 Ave. So. 

      Runs until September 1 

Southern Alberta Art Gallery

Into the Streets: Avenues for Art 

403.327.8770     Tues-Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 1-5pm 

      in temporary location 324 5 St. So. 

      Runs until September 19 

      ‘The Circus and the Wishing Well’ ~ Kristi Malakoff 

      In temporary location 324 5 Street So 

      Runs Until September 13 

      Inspired Perspectives: Imagining the Bridge 

      Week-long art classes for youth      

      in temporary location 324 5 St. So. 

      Runs July 6 – August 21 

Trianon Gallery    Triangulation

~ Yan Luo, Nic de Cosson, April Matisz 

403.381.8888    104 5 St. So. 

      Runs until August 28 

U of L Faculty of Fine Arts

 The Body Multipled: Figurative Photographs 

403.329.2616    Main Gallery, University of Lethbridge 

      Runs until September 

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Bridge View: A Seasonal Journey by Donna Bilyk 

      Niche Gallery - Locker #W138, 8th Level 

      Runs until September 11 

Conservatory of Music

   Southern Alberta Vocal Experience (S.A.V.E.) S

403-329-2304    Daily concerts and masterclasses open to the public 

      University of Lethbridge Recital Hall (W570) 

      Runs August 10-22