Stanley Park
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Stanley Park is a 1,000 acre (4 km²) park located near downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The park is the third largest urban parks in North America, featuring many huge Douglas-fir, Western Redcedar, and Western Hemlock trees. These trees can be up to 100 metres (300 ft) tall and, hundreds of years old. It is estimated that 8 million people visit the park yearly.
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History
In 1886, Vancouver’s City Council agreed to petitioning the Government of Canada to lease the large, 1,000 acre (4 km²) military reserve on the peninsula to the west. This area had been logged many times since the first pioneers settled in the area and required some work before it was presentable. At Brockton Point, the city’s first graveyard is closed so the park may be developed. Soon after establishment of this official "greenspace", the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation (now known as the Vancouver Park Board), was created.
On September 27, 1888 the park was officially opened, where it was named after Lord Stanley, Governor General of Canada at the time. The next year on October 29, Lord Stanley himself, the first visit of a Governor General to British Columbia, officially dedicated the park. An observer at the event wrote:
"Lord Stanley threw his arms to the heavens, as though embracing within them the whole of one thousand acres [4 km²] of primeval forest, and dedicated it 'to the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds, and customs, for all time'."
In 1908, 20 years after the first petition for the lease, the federal ministry of defence renewed the lease of Stanley Park to Vancouver for 99 years, renewable.
The Vancouver Park Board now maintains over 192 parks at over 12.78 km² of land, but Stanley Park remains, by far, the largest.
Attractions
The seawall
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Construction of the 8.8 km (5.5 mile) trail was begun in 1918, but not declaired finished until 1980. Since then many more additions to the seawall have been built wraping it around the entire west end of the city.
The miniature railway
The train is an exact replica of Locomotive Engine #374, which pulled the first transcontinental passenger train into Vancouver in 1886. The ride lasts 15 minutes, traveling in a figure-eight though what used to be the Stanley Park Zoo. For a few days around Christmas and Halloween, the area around entire length of track is dressed up in lights, and other decorations.
Other attractions
- Lion's Gate Bridge
- Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
- The 9 O'clock gun
- Beaver Lake
- First Beach (English Bay Beach)
- Second Beach
- Third Beach
- The naval station/museum HMCS Discovery on Deadman's Island in Coal Harbour
- Prospect Point
- Pitch and Putt golf course
- The Rose Garden
- The Children's Farmyard
External links
- Vancouver Parks web site (http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/parks/stanley/index.htm)
- Vancouver Aquarium (http://www.vanaqua.org/)
There is also a Stanley Park in Liverpool, England.
Stanley Park is also the title of the first novel by Canadian author Timothy Taylor.