Banff History - POWs

I had a Great Great Uncle who was a POW in Banff during WWI. It is amazing to see how much things have changed in Alberta over the past century. The next time you are travelling the 1A be sure to stop at the Memorial just West of Castle Junction.

The Following Article is from the Calgary Herald.
David Finch is a Calgary historian.© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Prisoners of war are worth remembering.
PoW number 505 was "committed to insane asylum." Number 62 escaped; 423 escaped and was recaptured; 8 escaped, was recaptured and was later "paroled" of his crimes, and 290 was wounded while trying to escape.
These men were imprisoned during the First World War, but not in Europe. They were interned in Banff National Park, at the Cave and Basin hot springs site and at Castle Mountain --two spectacular tourist settings. Unless you are looking at them through barbed wire.
Like thousands of others during the Great War, these people were designated "enemy aliens." Internment camps were operated in Field, B. C., and Sydney, N. S., --and every province in between.
Amy Zator was just 11 years old, her brothers Tadeus and Vaclaw were seven and two. Baby prisoner Alice Zaoral was six months old. Other families were left destitute when the father was imprisoned and the wife and children had to beg for relief. Saddest of all, perhaps, were the ones who died while in detention.
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans--Ukranians, Poles, Italians, Bulgarians, Turks, Croatians, Serbs, Hungarians, Russians, Jews and Romanians--came to Canada as hard-working settlers and labourers. For their dedication, almost 10,000 of them were declared "enemy aliens" and imprisoned during the war. Another 80,000 had to report to police each month.
In Banff Park, they built roads, worked on the golf course, and generally did whatever the park superintendent commanded. They were "volunteers" in that they were "allowed" to work.
Number 170 was interned first in 1915 in the Lethbridge camp, transferred later that year to the Castle Mountain facility, and in 1916 "paroled" with 25 others
when the Canmore Coal Company needed underground miners. In November 1916, he enlisted to fight for his adopted country in the 21st Infantry Battalion in Calgary. Then an officer noticed him.
An unsubstantiated rumour said number 170 was "an escaped prisoner of war from Detention Camp Castle Mountain" and so he was charged "as an alien enemy joining overseas forces." The day after his battalion left for Europe he was discovered dead in his cell. The coroner found his suicide was a rash act that "would appear to have been committed during a fit of despondency." His remains rest in Calgary's Union Cemetery.
The anger, racism and hatred against Europeans also caused riots. In February of 1916, the press erroneously reported that Germans had bombed the Canadian Parliament buildings and that Canada was being invaded.
A mob of 500 soldiers stormed the two downtown Calgary locations of the While Lunch Restaurant, pushed past the police and destroyed both eating establishments. They were rumoured to employ aliens.
Not content, the mob also demolished the McLennan Dancing Academy above one of the restaurants. No aliens there either.
The next night, 1,500 soldiers attacked the Riverside Hotel--owned by an Englishman, but rumoured to be German-owned--on the north bank of the Bow River. With their blood running high, they charged into downtown, looking for more buildings to destroy.
Luckily the weather was cold and the mob dispersed. Only four soldiers were charged and fined $50, or 60 days in prison.
In response to the riots, city council passed a resolution denying work to anyone born in enemy territory, even if he had changed his name and become a Canadian citizen.
Visit the displays at the Cave and Basin national historic site in Banff next time you visit the mountains to learn more about this part of Canadian history.
Lest we forget.