Park Prisoners the Untold Story of Western Canada's National Parks

by Bill Waiser

Between 1915 and 1946, the Canadian government put some ten thousand unskilled foreigners, jobless and homeless people, conscientious objectors, perceived enemies of the state, and prisoners of war to work in western Canada's national parks. These men had committed no crimes, but because of war or depression, they were seen as a possible threat to public order and a potential source of civil unrest.

Many of the Banff, Jasper, and other national parks' heritage buildings and roads were constructed through the backbreaking work of the internees in these labour camps. More than 125 archival photographs illustrate this compelling history of how these men lived and worked, how they were treated, and the legacy they left in our national parks.

Genres: History, Canada, Nonfiction

294 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was just fascinating. This narrative explores the use of conscripted or involuntary labour in the western Canadian national parks in the first half of the 20th century to build roads and other improvements. These men were compensated at incredibly low rates and did much of their work only with shovels and pickaxes.

With the exception of German prisoners of war, all of these men were Canadian citizens or legally residing in Canada when they became inconvenient to society because of their ethnicity or joblessness. Government stashed them away, usually far from other people and put them to work so they could be useful, as well as invisible.

Though this is mostly narrative, Waiser successfully argues that this labour was in many ways ironic: Canadian national parks were created for all Canadians and Canadian society, and these men were set to work in remote places because of their unsuitability to belong to Canadian society.

Waiser writes incredibly readable book, and I'll never drive the highway between Banff and Lake Louise without thinking about the men who helped build it. If this sounds interesting to you, I'd recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book. It's easy to jump into, and he provides whatever context you need. Plus, Waiser included a ton of photographs that really help to illustrate the narrative.

[Amy Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastic photographs and I did learn quite a bit,but the book is so incredibly dull and factual that I skimmed after chapter one. It is written like a school textbook or a really dry newspaper article,it's hard going and impersonal.
It covers the prisoners of war and the relief camp workers down through the Japanese prisoners and later Germans captured in Africa.

I learned that many of the places I enjoy each summer in Banff were created by these prisoners and relief workers,like the Bow Valley Parkway, highway to Lake Louise, the upper bathhouse at Cave and Basin, the provincial building and the beautiful Cascade gardens,along with an extension to the golf course.

Every little fact you might want is in here,if you can be bothered to slog through to find it. Pictures are worth looking at it for however.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5 - this is fascinating, but a bit dry. It's not a "pop history" book - it's an academic work by one of Canada's best historians. My main issues were just with the style and layout - long chapters that didn't always tie into each other very well. But as mentioned, this is almost more of a textbook. It took me a few months to slog through (mainly because I got it from the university library on a 6 month loan so took a long break halfway through when my public library loans began to pile up).

I think these stories are important to know about, but I wouldn't recommend this book to most people. The book is old and (I assume) out of print, but would make an amazing documentary. (Ken Burns - get on this!)

I will never look at the Waskesiu breakwater the same way again!

[Colin Freebury · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, well-researched, well-written, thoughtful history of the internment of "more than ten thousand men - enemy aliens, relief workers, conscientious objectors, Japanese nationals, and German prisoners of war - [who] spent months, sometimes years, in labour camps in western Canada's prairie and mountain national parks."

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Waiser sets out to tell the story of the mostly forgotten people that laboured in Canada's National Parks during turbulent periods in Canada's history. The book is divided into six sections, each devoted to a specific group of people in a specific time period and the work they did in the parks, along with the problems and prejudice these people faced: enemy aliens(WWI), relief workers(Great Depression), transients(Great Depression), conscientious objectors(WWII), Japanese(WWII), and Nazis(WWII).

While the topic is definitely worth exploring, and the idea of the topic is interesting, the writing was rather lackluster. I wanted to be more absorbed than I was. The book suffers from the common non-fiction issue of dry writing. It took me a couple of months to work through this, which is quite a long time, considering the text(discounting bibliography/notes) is only 252 pages. Definitely not a quick and easy read, though there were times I managed to get through a good chunk at a time.

However, this is one of Waiser's early publications, and I know for a fact his writing improves, having read some of his later books.

[Carol Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of internment camps within Canada's National Parks between WWI and the end of WWII. From destitute men on the streets to German POW's, a wide variety of men worked in these camps over the years and built many of the roads and buildings that we take for granted in these parks today.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very interesting read. I knew there had been prisoners of war but not that the parks had held other people and yes there should be some recognition of the contributions made by the parks or the government of Canada for those that built during their incarceration.