Petawawa is a town defined by its military base. Since 1905, when the Department of Militia and Defence established Camp Petawawa on the sandy plains above the Ottawa River, the military presence has shaped every aspect of the community. But the area's history stretches back much further, and some of its most significant chapters are rarely discussed.
Beneath the surface of the modern military town are layers of history that complicate the simple narrative of a community built around a base. Indigenous use of the Petawawa River corridor predates European contact by thousands of years. Nineteenth-century settlers built farms and communities on land that would later be appropriated for military use. And during both World Wars, the base served as an internment camp under conditions that Canada has only recently begun to acknowledge.
The Anishinaabe Corridor
The Petawawa River was a major travel route for the Anishinaabe people long before Europeans arrived in the Ottawa Valley. The river connects the Ottawa River to the interior of the Algonquin Highlands, and its portage routes provided access to hunting and trapping territories across a vast area. The name Petawawa itself is derived from an Algonquin word, variously translated as "where one hears a noise like this" or "a place of swift water," referring to the river's many rapids.
Archaeological evidence of Indigenous use of the area spans thousands of years, but relatively little of this history has been documented or made accessible to the public. The establishment of the military base in the early twentieth century disrupted and obscured many of the sites that might have provided more information about pre-contact use of the area.
Displaced Settlers
When the military acquired land for Camp Petawawa, it displaced a number of farming families who had settled on the sandy plains above the Ottawa River. These were not wealthy people. The soil was poor, the growing season short, and most of the settlers supplemented their farm income with work in the lumber camps during winter.
The displacement was not a simple transaction. Some families resisted relocation. Others received compensation that was inadequate to establish themselves elsewhere. The communities that existed before the base, their churches, schools, and gathering places, were simply erased. Today, there is little visible evidence that these communities ever existed, though traces of their presence can sometimes be spotted on the fringes of the military property.
The military base has occupied this land for over a century, but earlier chapters of the area's history are still visible to those who look.
The Internment Camps
One of the most troubling chapters in Petawawa's history is its use as an internment camp during both World Wars. During the First World War, the camp held so-called enemy aliens, primarily Ukrainian and Austro-Hungarian immigrants who had done nothing wrong but who were rounded up because of their ethnic origin. Conditions at the camp were harsh. Internees were used as forced labour, and several died during their imprisonment.
During the Second World War, Camp Petawawa held German and Italian prisoners of war, as well as Japanese-Canadian civilians who had been forcibly relocated from British Columbia. The treatment of Japanese Canadians during this period is now recognized as one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian history, and Petawawa's role in the internment program is part of that story.
Recognition of the internment camps has come slowly. Memorials have been erected in recent years, but for decades the history was largely unacknowledged. The physical evidence of the camps, barracks, fences, and administrative buildings, has mostly been demolished or repurposed, making it difficult to appreciate the scale of the operations.
Lumber Before the Military
Before the military arrived, the Petawawa area was deep in lumber country. The Petawawa River was one of the major log-driving rivers of the Ottawa Valley, carrying timber from the interior forests to the mills downstream. The infrastructure of the log drive, dams, slides, and boom structures, was built and maintained along the river's length.
Some of this lumber-era infrastructure survives, particularly in areas outside the military base. The old bridges near Petawawa include some that date to the lumber era, and mill ruins can be found along the tributaries of the Petawawa River.
The lumber industry also created a network of roads and trails that connected the camps and depots in the forest. Some of these routes are still in use as forestry roads or recreational trails. Others have been swallowed by the bush, visible only as subtle depressions or lines of slightly different vegetation running through the forest.
Uncovering the Layers
Understanding Petawawa's hidden history requires looking beyond the obvious military narrative. Local archives, the Champlain Trail Museum in nearby Pembroke, and the work of historians and archaeologists have begun to fill in the gaps. The military history itself is well documented, but the stories that preceded and were overshadowed by the military presence are still being recovered.
For visitors to the Petawawa area, awareness of these hidden layers adds depth to the landscape. The sandy plains that make up the training grounds were once farms. The forests along the river corridor were once part of an industrial network that stretched across the valley. And the base itself, now associated with Canada's modern military, was once a place of confinement and injustice.