A green and yellow sign reading 'WELCOME BIENVENUE' in front of a fenced building, indicating a military or force headquarters. The landscape features a grassy area and a nearby road.
A view of a landscaped green hill with a sign reading 'Village at Griesbach' in the foreground, surrounded by trees and plants.

We just called it The Base.

A thousand men in eight days. A parade square turned into a suburb with four little lakes. A bronze general on a horse that most of the people living there can’t name.

Aerial view of Hamilton Gault Barracks in Edmonton, Alberta, taken in 1958, highlighting various barrack blocks marked in different colors, including yellow, red, and blue. The image indicates future developments and the location of a gym.
Bronze statue of a soldier riding a horse, set against a cloudy sky.

He was Major-General William Griesbach, Edmonton’s youngest-ever mayor, son of Canada’s first Mountie, and the officer who raised the 49th Battalion in 1915. North Edmonton’s neighbourhood of Griesbach now sits on the army base that took his name.

Abandoned two-story building with a flat roof and a central entrance, surrounded by a grassy area and tree, set against a clear sky.
Abandoned two-story building with a flat roof, featuring boarded windows and surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds, under a clear blue sky.
A black and white photo of a residential street scene featuring two vintage cars parked near a corner, with a woman walking past and children playing in the foreground.

This episode digs down through the layers beneath it: millennia of Indigenous homeland: bison country and river-valley trails that long predate the fort, the fur trade, and Treaty 6; the Forty-Niners who fought at the Somme and Passchendaele.

Emblem of the 49th Edmonton Overseas Battalion, featuring a maple leaf and a crown, with the text 'EDMONTON' and 'CANADA'.
Emblem of the Edmonton Regiment featuring crossed arms, a crown, and maple leaves, with the number '49' prominently displayed.

Among them Alex Decoteau, the Cree Olympic runner and Canada’s first Indigenous police officer; the Canadian Airborne Regiment born on-site; the base’s quieter institutional underside; and the village that remembers its dead one street sign at a time.

Portrait of a young male athlete in a sleeveless shirt with a shield emblem and medals, next to a man in a formal military uniform and cap.
Newspaper article titled 'Alberta Athlete Killed in Action' reporting on Alex Decoteau, a prominent middle and long-distance runner from Alberta, who was killed during military service in 1917.
A historical black and white photograph of a man wearing athletic shorts and a tank top with the number 202, standing in front of a tent.

Who was the man on the horse? What’s buried under the streets? And what does it mean to build your kitchen on a parade square?

Street sign for Decoteau Way in a residential neighborhood with houses and trees.
Abandoned road lined with overgrown grass and trees on either side, with visible street lamps.
A photocopied map of Griesbach base from 2000 showing various buildings and their designated labels, with over 20 abandoned buildings indicated by large black shapes.
A gravel road intersections with a paved sidewalk, surrounded by grass and trees, with buildings in the background and a smoky atmosphere.
View of a residential street with houses on both sides and a grassy lawn, featuring a visible street sign for '105 St NW'.
Two people walking on a deserted street lined with a fence in a neighborhood in Edmonton, Canada, with row houses in the background.
Map of Griesbach neighborhood in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, showing its location within the city.
Aerial view of a suburban neighborhood featuring well-maintained homes, a park area, and a lake. The image shows a tree-lined street with sidewalks and green spaces.

Sources, archives, and a free self-guided walking tour at memoryandvalour.ca.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

The research behind the episode.

Books (research anchors)

  • G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War
  • Tim Cook, At the Sharp End (1914–1916) and Shock Troops (1917–1918)
  • W.A. Griesbach, I Remember (memoir, 1946)

Major-General William Antrobus Griesbach

The 49th Battalion (Edmonton Regiment), CEF

The land before the base (Indigenous history & settlement)

Alex Decoteau

CFB Griesbach / Griesbach Barracks

  • Government of Canada (DND) — “Canadian Forces Trail honours military history in Edmonton” (Western Sentinel, 2020) — canada.ca
  • Veterans Affairs Canada — Village of Griesbach
  • Wikipedia — CFB Griesbach — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFB_Griesbach

The Canadian Airborne Regiment

The redevelopment (Village at Griesbach)

ARCHIVES, CLIPS & FURTHER VIEWING

Go see and hear it for yourself.

Watch — “The Black Hole”: Inside the CFB Edmonton Detention Barracks (ITV Edmonton, 1989)
Reporter Ray Rudowski tours No. 14 Service Prison and Detention Barracks — “the DB” — for a look at the harsher edge of base life: solitary confinement, bread-and-water rations, and the few reforms that followed a Canadian Human Rights Commission investigation. — https://youtu.be/LObWKxwKQGs
Source: ITV Edmonton (now Global Edmonton / Corus Entertainment), 1989, via YouTube. Embedded; rights remain with the original broadcaster.

Watch — Airborne (National Film Board of Canada)
A film showing the Canadian Airborne Regiment — the unit born at CFB Griesbach in 1968. Embeddable from the NFB. — https://collection.nfb.ca/film/airborne

Listen — Oral Histories of the First World War (Library and Archives Canada)
Streamable audio of CEF veterans recalling Vimy, Passchendaele and trench life, from the CBC’s 1964 In Flanders Fields interviews. — bac-lac.gc.ca

Explore — William A. Griesbach fonds (City of Edmonton Archives)
Photographs and papers of the man himself. — https://cityarchives.edmonton.ca/william-a-griesbach-fonds

Explore — Personnel Records of the First World War (Library and Archives Canada)
Search digitized attestation papers and service files — including the Forty-Niners — free, by name, unit, or regimental number. — bac-lac.gc.ca

Explore — The 49th Battalion Memorial Project
An online archive of the battalion’s people, sacrifice, and primary sources. — https://49thbattalion.com

Read deeper — Alex Decoteau, Passchendaele centenary (CBC News)
On the Cree Olympian and Canada’s first Indigenous police officer, who died with the 49th. — https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alex-decoteau-edmonton-indigenous-passchendaele-1.4395848

AUDIO CREDITS

  • Honour song performed by Big River Cree — recorded live at a round dance by Samantha McCrea, [year]. Used with the group’s permission.
  • “We’ll Meet Again” — performed by Vera Lynn (1939); written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles.
  • “Original Rags” — composed by Scott Joplin (1899); public domain.
  • “Last Post” and “The Rouse” — traditional bugle calls; public domain.

Bugle calls and period music are used to evoke the era; representative, not recorded at Griesbach.

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Published by Samantha L.G. McCrea

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