CASTLE MOUNTAIN
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CASTLE MOUNTAIN |
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NAME: Castle Mountain COUNTY: N/a ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Warm summers, cold winters BEST TIME TO VISIT: Late Spring through to early fall |
COMMENTS:
Located deep in Banff National Park along Highway 1A REMAINS: Barbed wire, whitewashed stones, some timber |
| Under the shadow of Castle Mountain, deep in the heart of Banff National Park, is the site of one of Canada's darkest memories - fading reminders of an internment camp built during the First World War.When Canada entered the First World War, more than 88,000 immigrants from countries at war with the country were required to register as "enemy aliens". Anyone of these immigrants faced the risk of being thrown into internment camps set up across the country if they were found by authorities to be without work, identity papers or failed to report regularly to law enforcement agencies.Under Canada's War Measures Act, more than 8,000 "enemy aliens" were put in 24 camps across the country, even though most were noncombatant unemployed civilians, and victims of that period's economic depression and wartime hysteria. It's estimated that two-thirds of the prisoners were of Ukrainian descent.Two camps were set up between 1915 and 1917 in what is now known as Banff National Park - one for winter use in the Cave and Basin area near the Banff townsite and the other at Castle Mountain, used during the summer months. The town camps housed as many as 600 prisoners and 180 guards.The internees were put to work in the park for 25 cents a day, their labours used mainly to build a roadway between the Banff townsite and Lake Louise. When at the Cave and Basin site, prisoners were forced on such projects as a golf course expansion, further road construction and bridge building.Living conditions at the Castle Mountain camp was described as grim and harsh, with at least one reported suicide and 60 escape attempts.Both park camps closed in 1917 and the remaining 47 prisoners were transferred to another camp in Ontario.The Castle Mountain site was quickly dismantled and left to the mountain ghosts. More than a decade ago, a cross made of poplar, 3 1/2 metres high and 1 1/2 metres wide, was erected in concrete by a roadway near the site to remind visitors of the tragic episode in Canadian history. However, it was torn down. But following intense lobbying the the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the federal government finally agreed by 1994 to allow an official memorial and statue to be built near the site. The actual camp site is now hidden from roadside travelers by a forest, and park officials don't advertise its precise location as a means to deter those who illegally hunt for artifacts.But if visitors do stumble upon the site, there is little left, except for the grim reminders of barbed wire from the camp fences; the odd whitewashed stones, pieces of timber and scatterings of pots, tins and cans. Submitted by: Johnnie Bachusky |
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