Alberta’s Military History Is Bigger Than Any One Museum
Veterans Memorial Gardens & Interpretive Centre is one place to discover Alberta’s military history—but the stories extend far beyond our gardens and exhibits. Across Alberta, military history can be found in museums, Legion halls, historic airfields, former military sites, cenotaphs, memorials, cemeteries, community collections and places where Canadians trained, served, lived and worked. Some are major attractions. Others are small, local places that are easy to miss unless you know where to look. We want to help you find them.
We Know Road Trips
Veterans Memorial Gardens & Interpretive Centre is operated by the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association, an Alberta nonprofit organization that has spent years promoting road travel, rural communities and unique places to explore. Despite the name, our tourism work has never been limited to motorcycles. We promote rubber-tire tourism—whether you travel by motorcycle, car, truck, RV, electric vehicle or bicycle. Through the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association, we understand what makes a great road trip: interesting roads, unexpected stops, good places to eat and stay, welcoming communities and experiences worth getting off the highway to discover. Now we are putting that experience to work in military tourism.
We Are the Canadian Military Tourism Association
We also operate as the Canadian Military Tourism Association, bringing together our experience in tourism with our work in military history, remembrance and interpretation. Our goal is to help people discover military-related places and experiences throughout Alberta—not simply the destinations that appear at the top of a tourism search.
Military tourism can include:
- Military, regimental and community museums
- Royal Canadian Legion collections and displays
- Cenotaphs, monuments and memorials
- Commemorative gardens
- Historic military buildings
- Former bases, training areas and airfields
- Aviation and Cold War sites
- Military vehicles, aircraft and equipment
- Commonwealth War Graves and veterans’ burial sites
- First and Second World War history
- Indigenous and Métis military history
- Cold War and NORAD history
- Peacekeeping and modern Canadian Armed Forces history
- Military ceremonies and commemorative events
- Local stories connected to the men and women who served
Sometimes the most interesting military history is found where you least expect it.
Turn Military History Into a Road Trip
Finding one interesting place is good. Connecting several of them into a journey is even better.
A visit to a community museum might lead to a nearby cenotaph. The names on that cenotaph might connect to a former training site or wartime airfield. Down the road there may be a Legion collection, military aircraft on display, a commemorative garden or another community with an entirely different military story. We want to help connect those dots.
Need Help Planning the Trip?
We can also help turn those discoveries into an actual vacation.
CMTA Travel Services is our nonprofit travel agency.
Through CMTA Travel Services, we can help travellers incorporate military tourism into a larger Alberta road trip, including accommodations, communities, attractions and other experiences along the way.
Tell us what interests you, where you’re starting from, how long you have and how you like to travel.
We can help you find the military history along the route—and some of the interesting Alberta experiences in between.
Start Here. Then Explore Alberta.
Veterans Memorial Gardens & Interpretive Centre can be your destination, but it can also be your starting point.
When you visit, ask us what else you should see.
If you’re heading north, south, east or west, there is military history to discover throughout Alberta.
Through the Canadian Military Tourism Association, the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association and CMTA Travel Services, we are working to make those places easier to find, easier to connect and easier to experience.
Because Alberta’s military stories aren’t contained within four walls.
They’re all over the province. Let us help you find them.