Camp Hughes was a Canadian military training camp, located in the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford west of the town of Carberry in Manitoba, Canada. It was actively used for Army training from 1909 to 1934 and as a communications station from the early 1960s until 1991.Camp Hughes was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 2011. It features an intact World War I battlefield terrain, which was created for training purposes by the Canadian Department of Militia between 1915 and 1916. It is now one of the only World War One era trench systems remaining in the world.HistoryIn 1909, a Canadian military training camp named "Camp Sewell" was established 10 kilometers west of Carberry, south of the Canadian Pacific Railway line. It started out as a city of tents and covered a large area. The name of the camp was changed in 1915 to "Camp Hughes" in honour of Major-General Sir Sam Hughes, Canada's Minister of Militia and Defence at the time. Extensive trench systems, grenade and rifle ranges, and military structures were built at Camp Hughes between 1915 and 1916, and a variety of retail stores and entertainment complexes on a double-avenued area close to the main camp formed a lively commercial midway. During World War I, more than 38,000 troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force trained at the camp, and by 1916 it had grown to such a large size that it had the largest population of any city in the province of Manitoba outside of the capital city, Winnipeg. Many of the soldiers who trained at Camp Hughes were later involved in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France on April 9, 1917.
