Lloydminster straddles the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. Founded in 1903 by the Barr Colonists before either province had been carved out of the Northwest Territories, it was intended to be an exclusively British Utopian settlement, centred on the idea of sobriety. Unfortunately, the colonists had no idea that the Fourth Meridian  of the Dominion Land Survey was under consideration as a future provincial boundary. (The meridian was intended to coincide with 110 west longitude but imperfect surveying methods placed the meridian a few hundred metres west of the longitude.) As a result, Lloydminster was two separate towns, with separate municipal administrations until 1930, when the towns were amalgamated under shared jurisdiction and reincorporated as a city in 1958.

Arriving in Lloydminster on a Sunday was problematic as a number of restaurants are closed Sunday and Monday. We did have a good meal last night at the local Original Joe’s (thanks to Lorraine for the suggestion) and lunch there today. Coffee this morning was at Ernie’s Coffee House in the old brick post office building.  We were approached there by a young woman conducting a survey for the city  on public transportation (there isn’t any). She was intrigued with our bike trip and, when we inquired about her, discovered that she is a Queens U grad working for a year before attending law school at Georgetown University, with plans to pursue a career in international relations.

We later headed over to the Barr Colony Heritage Cultural Centre, which houses an impressive collection of the paintings of Berthold Von Imhoff, as well as other local artists, and the OTS Heavy Oil Science Centre, aimed at children but interesting for us too.