The PNE says all the military artifacts dug up at Hastings Park will be returned to the Canadian Armed Forces at a ceremony on Tuesday.
Crews working on the new Freedom Mobile Arch Amphitheatre found more than a dozen guns and cannons from the First World War buried at the site.
On March 27, crews discovered what appeared to be a “cannon.”
It turned out to be a captured German Howitzer from the First World War, taken as a trophy by Canadian soldiers.
Canadian troops brought a number of such weapons home, which were displayed around the city in the years after the war, according to James Calhoun, curator for the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Museum.
The guns were moved to Hastings Park in the 1930s with plans to make a permanent display, but the Great Depression scuttled that plan.
By the 1940s, they were viewed as “junk,” he said, and it’s believed they were ultimately used to fill in a ravine on the site when the military took over the park in 1942.
It was then used as a training site for troops.
As part of the all-day celebration on Tuesday, all active duty and retired military members will receive free admission to the Fair at the PNE.