Cadets arriving at Vernon's CPR station in 1955.
Image Credit: Cam Leblond
November 11, 2024 - 6:00 AM
Soldiers trained at the Vernon Military Camp, now a cadet camp, during both world wars and helped grow the city into what it is today.
The military camp was built in 1912 to train local militia and then it was further developed for the First World War and the Second World War, and eventually the summer cadet camp it is today.
Local historian and photographer Francois Arseneault said the camp’s history can connect people to those who came before, and with the city itself.
“The people that have been through there, whether it's those young soldiers in the First World War who came from Nelson or Kaslo or Kamloops to train there, to the Second World War where we had soldiers from all across Canada, young men and a few young women, too - to kids who started going to their camps from the 1940s through to today. It's about people, and for everyone who's come to the camp, it had a profound impact on them,” Arseneault said.
“One message that I've read numerous times in the biographies of young men who trained at the camp, whether it was the First World War or the Second World War, they all said the same thing. They said, ‘I can't believe we're in the middle of a war, and I'm in the middle of the most beautiful place in Canada.’”
The camp trained thousands of soldiers who fought in Europe. Soldiers would train together during the summer and set out as a battalion.
“The battalion was about 1,000 men. And those 1,000 men would march down the hill, down what is now Highway 97. They would march down the hill. There was no highway back then. It was just a road. Go to the train station. Get on board a CP Rail train. Depart Vernon,” he said.
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From the era when soldiers trained on horseback, to the era of radio operators and mechanics, Canadians learned the skills they needed at the Vernon Military Camp.
The camp was not only important for the military, but also for Vernon’s development as a city. In the summers of 1915 and 1916 about 11,500 soldiers trained at the camp.
“In each of those summers by 6,000 men, the population of the City of Vernon was barely 3,000. So you can start to see the symbiotic relationship developing between this little town of Vernon and this Vernon Military Camp,” Arseneault said.
“There were weekends where the guys could go into town and go to dances at any of the local halls. Of course, in the pre-radio, pre-television, pre-everything days, live music was the only kind of music there was. So there were many, many dance halls. Knights of Columbus, YMCA, those kinds of organizations had little dance halls downtown scattered all over.”
The Vernon Military Camp continued to be used during the Second World War, including explosive training in what is now Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park. Unexploded devices have been found in the park, and there may still be some left. BC Parks warns people to call 911 if they see something that could be an unexploded ordnance like a mortar round.
There were around 7,000 soldiers at the camp at any given time during the height of the Second World War.
Arseneault said there are probably 100 homes on Middleton Mountain that were built on top of the rifle range that used to be where the intersection of Mount Ida Drive and Mount Revelstoke Place is today.
“I'm sure they dug up an awful lot of lead,” he said.
The military camp became a summer camp for cadets 75 years ago in 1949, and remains one of the main training camps for cadets in the country.
The military used it as recently as 2003 when the Canadian Forces were deployed under Operation Peregrine to fight forest fires.
Arseneault said the camp is the last one of its kind still intact as it was during both world wars.
“It’s living history.”
For more on Vernon's military role, check out the Vernon Museum's web page here.
An aerial photo of the Vernon Military Camp in 1939.
Image Credit: Doug Kermode
An aerial shot of the Vernon Military Camp in 1950, lined up with a similar angle as the 1939 image above.
Image Credit: Doug Kermode
Some young cadets enjoying some North Okanagan Creamery Association ice cream in the canteen in 1949.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Francois Arseneault
Cadets doing the watermanship course on the Shuswap River in 1973.
Image Credit: Cam Leblond
Cadets doing the watermanship course in 2006.
Image Credit: Wayne Emde
The Rocky Mountain Rangers at the Vernon Military Camp in 1916. The photographer stood where the baseball diamonds are next to Highway 97.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Francois Arseneault
Band Company and flag party at the Kalamalka Lake lookout back in 1974.
Image Credit: Cam Leblond
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