Canoe River Tragedy

A 17-car train filled with 23 officers and 315 men of the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery headed from the Prairies to the coast to embark for Korea on 21 November 1950. At mid-morning, they approached Canoe River and began a long, winding curve ascent. From the opposite direction, the 11-car Vancouver-Montreal passenger train entered the same loop on a descent.
The locomotives met head-on. The forward cars of the military train were thrown down an embankment and demolished . In just seconds, 17 of the Canadian Contingent to Korea, one as young as 17, most of them in their early 20s, were dead or dying and 60 more injured. Four soldiers' bodies were never recovered. The four CN Rail crew members were also killed and there were many injured gunners (33 non-walking and nine walking). There were no casualties to passengers on the East bound train. The event is remembered through a memorial on CN property beside the railway tracks, the BC commemorative sign beside the highway and a cairn at the Valemount Royal Canadian Legion. The names of the 17 soldiers are recorded in the  RCAA Lest We Forget project.