Vancouver’s Stanley Park isn’t the biggest city park in the world, but it can feel like it. Its thousand acres include some of the area’s oldest forests, threaded with walking trails; lakes and beaches, an aquarium, playgrounds and about seven miles of seafront walkway, part of the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront walkway. What more could you want?
But even in a city as young as Vancouver there’s history to be taken into account. European settlement in what’s now Vancouver only happened in 1862, after a nearby gold rush on the Fraser River. When the town was officially laid out a peninsula near the harbor entrance was set aside for military use, never mind that it was inhabited and farmed and fished by Coast Salish Native Americans.
Coast Salish village in Stanley Park, 1897
As usual, they ended up losing the land, but for years continued to live there, as development continued around them; eventually all but a few were moved on, although the last native descendant to go still lived in the park in 1958.
Vancouver’s future was assured when it was picked as the western terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which reached the city in 1880. Stanley Park’s future was assured in 1886, when Vancouver officially became a city; the first act of its new City Council was to ask the national government to allow it to lease the area for a park.
A popular train ride threads through forested areas, punctuated by occasional whimsical buildings and animal cutouts like those below.
Technically, Vancouver still doesn’t own the park; the original lease was renewed in 1908 for 99 years; in 2006, Parks Canada notified the city that “the Stanley Park lease is perpetually renewable and no action is required by the Park Board in relation to the renewal.” During both World Wars, parts of the park were used for military purposes, including a gun battery above the harbor.
The park is named for Lord Stanley, who presided over the official opening in 1888; he was the first Governor General of Canada to visit British Columbia.
Cedar dugout canoe, Vancouver, 1920s
Much of the heart of the park is original forest, there when the park arrived; some of its half-million trees are hundreds of years old, and as tall as 250 feet. Before the park was established some areas were logged commercially. The Coast Salish prized some of the bigger cedars; hollowed out, they became sturdy vessels for travel and for fishing.
In an effort to keep the park from becoming cluttered with memorials, the Park Board banned new ones a few years ago, but there are a number of them in the park, including one of Lord Stanley, arms outstretched, opening the park. One of the more unusual is this lantern-topped column, installed in the 1920s to honor Japanese-Canadians who had served in the Canadian military in World War I.
In the 1930s, two large seawater pools were build into the shoreline, drained at low tide and refilled as the tide came in. By the 1990s, they had developed sanitation problems; one was replaced by an artificial pool, and the other by a spray park for younger children, below. And, with the spray park, a unique solution to keeping your beach blanket dry: send the kids through the warm air jets of the Kid Dryer!
Along the shoreline, there’s plenty to do on a nice day; benches to sit and read or do nothing, a series of small beaches, birds to watch, and views out over the outer harbor and North Vancouver, linked by the Lions Gate Bridge.
Our afternoon in the park also included a chance to watch the apparently busy seaplane traffic around the city. That’s another in the distance of the lower picture.
A variety of birds inhabit the park, both land-lovers and seabirds, over 200 species. In 2001, a large colony of great blue herons established a base in the park, and has grown to nearly 200 nests. There are also quite a few rabbits, believed to be descended from abandoned pets, as well as raccoons, skunks and beavers.
I was surprised to discover that the large and thriving gray squirrel population in the park is descended from a group of eight pairs that were acquired from Central Park, New York City, in 1909. No New Yorker will easily believe that someone wanted our pests enough to invite them in!
A series of lighthouses along the park’s shore help guide traffic into the main harbor which is, literally, just around the corner; the sail-like structure is the city’s cruise pier at Canada Place. Compared to the cyclists, the lighthouses look pretty big, but when you see them next to the towers of the bridge, well…
One of them was this week’s One-Clue Mystery, solved by George G.
And here, just off the eastern tip of the park and facing the downtown waterfront, a floating gas station, ready for the boat business. It’s not part of the park, of course, but it’s part of the view.
One of the great city walks in North America, in my opinion, is on the trail that surrounds the park. It’s flat, and there are a lot of fascinating views along the way. But it is fairly long — will take the better part of a half day to do.
When DrFumblefinger says ‘fairly long,’ he’s not kidding. The portion that skirts Stanley Park is just under 7 miles, but the total length, starting at Canada Place and continuing around ‘behind’ the park to the mouth of the Fraser River is over twice that length!
In the summer of 1971 my husband & I, with 6 week-old infant son, had the good fortune of staying for several weeks at the Bayshore Inn, now the Westin, on the edge of Stanley Park. Beautiful views over water, seaplanes arriving below our window & a short walk to the park, quite an introduction to Vancouver. We loved it so much we thought we might like to live there. After a reconnaissance trip it didn’t work out but I remember it fondly. Thanks for the reminder.