CARDSTON

town, southwestern Alberta, Canada, on Lee Creek, near the U.S. (Montana) border, 47 miles (75 km) southwest of Lethbridge. Founded by Mormons from Utah in 1887, it was named for Charles Ora Card (Brigham Young's son-in-law), who led the wagon train from Utah and who played an important role in the development of irrigation from the nearby St. Mary River (now dammed to form St. Mary Reservoir). Cooperative farming, on which the town was built, still flourishes, and a cattle-grain economy prevails. The town's white granite Mormon temple (built 191323) is the only one of its kind in Canada; octagonal in a double Maltese cross ground plan, it is 110 feet (34 m) high. In 1888 the North West Mounted Police established a post at Cardston, which was incorporated as a village in 1898 and as a town in 1901, with Card (whose cabin on Main Street has been preserved) as its first mayor. Pop. (1991) 3,480.