During the Second World War, nearly 34,000 German Prisoners of War (PoWs) were transferred from British to Canadian control, and Canada thus hastily set up several large PoW camps and smaller satellite camps. PoWs filled leisure time with hobbies and crafts such as theatre, painting, model ship building, and woodworking. At Riding Mountain Work Camp, a forestry work camp in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, PoWs were even allowed to build and use dugout log canoes on a nearby stream and lake. Archaeological fieldwork at the site revealed that at least four of these canoes are still extant in the forest, and that two additional canoes are displayed at a nearby community museum.
- canoes,
- dugout canoes,
- PoW