Beacon Hill Park
Beacon Hill Park is a 75 ha (200 acre) park located along the shore of Juan de Fuca Strait in Victoria, British Columbia. The park is popular both with tourists and locals, and contains a number of amenities including woodland and shoreline trails, a playground, playing fields, a petting zoo, and landscaped gardens.
The land was originally set aside as a protected area by Sir James Douglas, governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858. In 1882, the land was officially made a municipal park of the City of Victoria, and given its present name. The name is derived from a small hill overlooking the Strait, upon which once stood navigational beacons. The hill is culturally significant, having been a burial site for the First Nations Coast Salish people, who are the original inhabitants of the Greater Victoria region. It provides scenic vistas of the Strait and the Olympic Mountains of Washington.
Although much of the park has been landscaped into gardens and playing fields, and populated with various structures, a great deak of the native flora has been preserved. Garry oak, arbutus, Douglas-fir, western redcedar, camas, trillium, snowberry, Oregon grape, and fawn lily still remain in the park. Much of the original wildlife has been extirpated by urban development, but raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, and a wide variety of birds are a common sight. The ponds in the park are noted for their swans, turtles, ducks, and blue herons.
The park is notable for a few human-made features, as well. Most prominent is the world's fourth-tallest totem pole, a 38.8-metre (127 ft) work carved by Kwakwaka'wakw craftsman Mungo Martin, and erected in 1956. Beacon Hill Park is also home to the Cameron Bandshell, which hosts concerts throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Finally, the southwestern tip of the park contains "Mile 0" of the Trans-Canada Highway.
