St Mary s River Fire declared out - Cranbrook Daily Townsman cranbrooktownsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cranbrooktownsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Article content
As my husband and I pulled up in front of the beautifully landscaped gardens and ivy-covered stone facade of the St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino near Cranbrook, I had one thought â it looks nice. Really nice. At first glance, St. Eugene looks like any other carefully renovated historic property, but its history is unlike any other hotel in the world.
From 1912 to 1970, the St. Eugene Mission was a residential school for Indigenous children. It was one of more than 130 residential schools that operated in Canada between 1831 and 1996. These church-operated English language residential schools separated First Nations children from their families, their culture and their language. St. Eugene was built to accommodate 126 students, but as many as 200 students were crammed into the building during the 1950s and 60s. In all, about 5,000 children from British Columbia and Alberta came through the school. Some did not survive.