Canadian Forces Base Petawawa is one of the largest military installations in Canada, occupying roughly 340 square kilometres of sandy plains and forest along the Ottawa River in Renfrew County. It has been in continuous military use since 1905 — 120 years and counting. In that time, it has trained soldiers for every major Canadian military operation from World War I through Afghanistan, held prisoners and internees during both World Wars, and shaped the surrounding community in ways that extend far beyond the base fence.
Establishment: 1905
The Department of Militia and Defence chose the Petawawa site for its open terrain, suitable for artillery training, and its distance from populated areas. The sandy soil that had defeated the area's farmers turned out to be ideal for military exercises: flat, well-drained, and resilient under heavy vehicle traffic. The establishment of the camp displaced several farming families who had settled the area in the previous decades. The hidden history of Petawawa covers this displacement in detail.
World War I
Camp Petawawa expanded rapidly after 1914. Thousands of troops trained at the camp before deploying to France and Belgium. The base also served as an internment facility, holding civilians of "enemy alien" nationality under the War Measures Act. The majority of internees were Ukrainian and Austro-Hungarian immigrants, many of them Canadian residents who had done nothing wrong. They were interned because of their ethnic origin and used as forced labour under harsh conditions. Several died in custody.
The WWI internment is one of the most troubling chapters in the base's history. Recognition came slowly. The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association advocated for decades before official acknowledgement. A commemorative plaque now exists, but for most of the twentieth century this history was not discussed publicly.
World War II
The camp grew even larger during WWII. Artillery, infantry, and armoured units trained on the ranges before shipping overseas. The base also held German and Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa and Europe. Some POWs were put to work in the surrounding forests, cutting timber for the war effort.
The camp also held Japanese-Canadian civilians forcibly relocated from British Columbia. Beginning in 1942, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians were removed from the coastal zone, their property confiscated, their families separated. Some were sent to Petawawa. This internment, now recognized as a grave injustice, was formally apologized for by the federal government in 1988.
The physical infrastructure of the wartime camp was enormous: barracks, mess halls, training facilities, administrative buildings, all built of wood and designed for the duration of the war. After 1945, most was demolished or left to deteriorate. Foundations and traces of the wartime camp surface occasionally during construction or when erosion exposes old footings.
The base has been continuously evolving for over a century, with each era leaving its own marks on the landscape.
Cold War
The Cold War brought new missions. Petawawa became home to the Canadian Airborne Regiment and was used extensively for parachute training. The base was connected to the broader Cold War air defence network, including the Pinetree Line radar stations. CFS Foymount, one of those stations, operated about 60 kilometres to the south from 1952 to 1974, and its abandoned radar domes are now one of the area's most recognizable ruins.
The Canadian Airborne Regiment, based at Petawawa from 1968 to 1995, was disbanded following the Somalia affair — the torture and killing of Somali teenager Shidane Arone by Canadian soldiers during a peacekeeping mission in 1993. The disbandment was one of the most significant events in modern Canadian military history, and Petawawa was at the centre of it.
Modern Era
In recent decades, Petawawa has been a staging ground for Canadian deployments to peacekeeping and combat operations worldwide. Units from the base served in Cyprus, Bosnia, Kosovo, and most significantly in Afghanistan, where the Petawawa-based Royal Canadian Regiment and other units saw extensive combat from 2002 through 2014. The base community paid a heavy price: multiple soldiers from Petawawa-based units were killed in Afghanistan, and the impact on the community has been profound.
Memorials on the base and in the surrounding community honour those who served and those who did not return. The Highway of Heroes, along which the remains of fallen soldiers were transported from CFB Trenton to Toronto, passed through communities where the losses were felt personally.
The Training Landscape
The training area is a distinctive ecosystem. The sandy plains support jack pine forests and ground cover found in few other places in southern Ontario. Ironically, the military's restriction of public access has preserved natural features that would otherwise have been developed. The Petawawa Research Forest, established in 1918 on adjacent land, is one of the oldest research forests in Canada and provides public access to experimental forest stands spanning over a century of silvicultural research.
The training area contains remains of practice ranges, obstacle courses, tank trails, and observation posts from every era since 1905. Access is restricted and the presence of unexploded ordnance makes unauthorized exploration extremely dangerous. The Petawawa Heritage Village and base museum are the public entry points for learning about the base's history.