Lille was founded as a coal mining town in 1901 by two representatives of a French company, United Gold Fields Ltd., that was re-established as Western Canadian Collieries in 1903. The company representatives, J. J. Fleutot and C. Remy, were prospecting in the Crowsnest Pass area when they happened upon a coal seam near the future site of Lille. Initially called 'French Camp', the town was renamed Lille after the French town of the same name where the mining venture's financial backers were located.