A remnant of Lethbridge's mining past will be preserved in a new park after city council designated the Galt Mine No. 6 site as a Municipal Historic Resource.

Not much remains of the mine shaft that closed more than 80 years ago, aside from the boiler hoist base, tipple foundation and drift tunnel — but that's not stopping the project.

"The fact there's not a lot there [is] actually giving us more opportunities," says Belinda Crowson, president of the Lethbridge Historical Society.

"In my mind, ruins and holographic material … you could have an amazing display there of what the buildings used to look like."

Belinda Crowson says her aim is to ensure the history of the mining community is well told. (Submitted)

The group is working with Melcor, the developer of the adjacent Legacy Ridge neighbourhood to turn the land into an interpretive park.

The mine gets its name from Sir Alexander Galt, who with his son Elliott started the coal mine industry in Lethbridge in the 1880s. Mine 6 was active from 1908 to 1935.

Crowson is trying to track down stories of the families who lived in Hardieville, the small community that sprang up around the mine in northwest Lethbridge.

"It was very much its own little community," Crowson told the CBC's Alberta at Noon show on Tuesday.

"Hardieville had a bit of a reputation, especially during the prohibition times. There was bootlegging known throughout that area and it was a coal mining town, a little bit rougher maybe than some of the communities around," she said.

"It was the miners, it was the working class that made coal mining and Hardieville what it was."

Very little remains today of mine No. 6. (Melcor Developments)

Crowson and her team are trying to find early maps of the community, as well as houses that were moved to Lethbridge in the 1930s, and even a church that made its way to Coaldale, some 20 kilometres east.

"It's like this big detective search we're doing — where are the buildings of Hardieville and where are the stories?"

They're asking anybody with Hardieville connections to contact the historical society.