Picture Butte Centennial Book will celebrate town’s 100-year history

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

The Town of Picture Butte is celebrating its 100th anniversary in August 2026 and to help mark the milestone, a colourful book of memories, short stories, photos and illustrations is being created to commemorate the history of Picture Butte. 

“We decided we’d like to print a book commemorating the 100 years of Picture Butte’s existence,” said Jeanene Casson, a member of the centennial book committee. “We’re looking for anything from sports stories to war veteran stories, businesses, farming, and we’re going to do a section on the Lethbridge North Irrigation District (LNID) and a section on the Picture Butte sugar beet factory.” 

Casson said they are asking Picture Butte and area residents to submit any short stories and photographs they have of Picture Butte and its people from over the past century. The book committee is just one of several committees formed to celebrate the town’s centennial in 2026. 

The deadline for submissions to the book is Sept 30. 

“Sugar beets is actually one thing that started Picture Butte back in the day,” said Casson, noting the centennial book will be categorized into several different sections, that include businesses past and present, immigration, war veterans, sports, town council, hospital and doctors, seniors facilities, the Piyami Lodge and the Dutch community, sugar beet industry, the farming community, LNID, schools, law enforcement, post offices, banks, churches, organizations and citizens of the year. 

“Submissions are coming in slowly but we expect after Sept. 1, for them to start coming in quite quickly,” said Casson. 

In addition to sharing short stories and memories, the book will also include photographs depicting  ‘now and then’ with photos of people or organizations and events from many years ago to photos taken in the present day with descriptions of changes throughout the years, and any differences in events or organizations.

The book will also include a comic section – that will have several pages filled with cartoon-like illustrations, to appeal to people of all ages, including children. 

“Some of it will (include) illustrations and some of the book is on one particular fellow’s adventures in the war,” said Casson, noting a former Picture Butte resident who was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and has since passed away. 

The all-inclusive book will also highlight immigration to the area and the many immigrants who settled here and helped build Picture Butte, noted Casson, adding the book will share “why they came here and what they came for.”

Casson said the centennial book project will help preserve the stories, photos and memories shared by former and current Picture Butte residents over the past 100 years. She hopes to see more residents contribute to this milestone undertaking. 

“We want the book to be the kind of book that’s interesting to look at,” she said. “We want kids to want to pick this book up and look at it and say wow, I didn’t know that happened in those days or wow, look at what they did in those days in farming,” Casson added. “We wanted an interesting book to just give everybody in the area an idea of what happened in those days.”

To submit photos or stories by Sept. 30, email pb100centennial@gmail.com or call (403) 894-8678 or (403) 360-9460.