The Canoe River Memorial was erected by the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, and is dedicated to the seventeen soldiers of the regiment killed in a train accident on the way from Shilo to Fort Lewis, Washington, on November 21, 1950. A sundial is placed in the top of the cairn.
A 17-car train filled with 23 officers and 315 men of the 2nd Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery headed from the Prairies to the coast to embark for Korea. 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.
