Immigrants interned in forced labour camps during First World War
By Natalie Stechyson, Calgary Herald, June 18, 2013
Between 200 and 600 mostly Eastern European immigrants were help prisoner at two internment camps in Banff — first at Castle Mountain and later at Cave and Basin, above — between 1915 and 1917.
Standing in picturesque Banff National Park, nestled between dizzying mountains and surrounded by a mix of wildlife and luxurious tourist attractions, “forced labour,” “enemy aliens” and “suicide” might not be the first words that come to mind.And yet that was the reality for hundreds of eastern-European immigrants interned there at a work camp during the First World War, part of a Canada-wide operation that saw nearly 9,000 mostly Ukrainian immigrants deemed enemy aliens and interned at 24 camps across the country as prisoners of war from 1914 to 1920.It’s also how much of the roads and clearings at several western national parks, including Banff, were built.
