Various members of the Hulland family with the Hulland house in the background, and the truck full of lumber from the dismantled barn, during the 1941 move out. -- SUBMITTED photo Hulland family collection
Wartime causes niceties to be ignored. So it was for 130 families wiped off the map in a matter of a few weeks in 1941 to accommodate the new military base at Suffield.
After the CPR railway was completed in 1883, Crown land in Alberta was exploited by large ranching companies. The Suffield area, called the “British Block” because the Southern Alberta Land Company that controlled it was largely British owned, attracted homesteaders and by 1920, it was home to some 300 settler families of various origins. One such homesteader, John Hulland, had emigrated from England to Ontario before being enticed to Alberta by the prospect of easily acquired farmland.
However, the dustbowl conditions in the 1930s meant only half of the original settler families remained on the land and they only achieved economic viability by buying adjacent quarters and adding livestock to wheat farming.
Around 1937, Hulland built a house on his homestead in East Springs from lumber salvaged from the cottage schoolhouse on Riverside in Medicine Hat, taking it apart board by board and transporting them to his homestead. By 1941, the prosperous Hulland family holdings consisted of seven quarters of deeded land and 20 of leased grazing land.
With war declared, the need for a gunnery and poison gas testing range was identified. The area north of Medicine Hat was selected since it was accessible by rail, open and relatively flat, but not densely populated.
In early June 1941, two politicians and a red-coated RCMP constable delivered expropriation (essentially eviction) documents to the settlers, effective 20 days later, in the name of the King. Although the compensation offered was felt to be unfair, there was little alternative.
A few residents, encumbered by ill health, debt or old age, were not unhappy to move on. Settlers were warned that after July 1, they would require a special permit to continue salvaging of their goods, and that demolition or burning of any structure left might occur. When the settlers left, scavengers removed anything of value until only shelter belt trees marked the homesteads.
The Department of Defence maintained that many of the houses were moved to continue as homes but only three homes were transported to Medicine Hat and Redcliff. The Hulland house was moved to Crescent Heights where Hulland found a lot with an existing basement. After a difficult transition, Hulland continued to farm in Alderson but the family lived in this home until 1954.
War creates imperatives but the impact on these families was immediate and significant. The scattered families had to rebuild their lives as best they could. Today, we enjoy the economic benefit of CFB Suffield, but it came at a cost not to be forgotten for those families.
Malcolm Sissons is a former member of the Heritage Resources Committee of the City of Medicine Hat. Information for this article was drawn from a document prepared by Tom Hulland and available at the Esplanade Archives.
