The present site of Canyon Church Camp in the Blakiston Valley was chosen in 1940 by a group of boys called the Trail Blazers, led by two United Church Ministers from New Dayton, Alberta. They returned every summer until 1944 when Lethbridge Presbytery of the United Church of Canada formally applied to Parks Canada for a permanent facility, and that summer, a dining hall, kitchen, one sleeping cabin, and an outhouse were built, mainly by volunteers. 

In 1945, an editorial in the Lethbridge Herald drew attention to the benefits of youth camps by noting that the camp provided recreation “that cannot be overrated in its value to boys and girls. The more facilities of this nature for present day youth, the better the citizenship of the future.”

The facilities grew gradually over the years, and religious services were a regular part of the camp activities, offered in an outdoorsy chapel with hand-hewn benches. Camp activities included swimming, hiking, crafts, campfires, dining room duties, and singing. 

Camp craft made in 1947 by Gretta Carlson Jensen Jefferson

Camp Canyon's legacy lives on!