Point Pleasant Park

Point Pleasant Park is a large, partially forested area at the southern tip of Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries, and a well-preserved eighteenth century Martello tower can be found there. The park is a popular recreational spot for Haligonians, as it hosts forest walks and affords views across the harbour and out toward the Atlantic.

Shakespearean plays are performed in the park every summer by the Shakespeare by the Sea theatre company.

In 2000 Canadian Food Inspection Agency planned to cut 10,000 trees to halt an outbreak of Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle (Tetropium fuscum). This plan was challenged by the Friends of Pt. Pleasant Park in the courts, which resulted in a temporary injunction stopping the cutting. The injunction was later removed but there was a reduction in tree cutting to less than 2000.

History

Fortifications in the Park

In 1749, Edward Cornwallis arrived under instruction of the British Government to create a sizeable military and civilian settlement of 4000. Halifax was to become a strategic settlement for the British and fortifications were primarily intended to prevent enemy ships from getting into the Halifax Harbour.

There were a total of seven fortifications constructed: Chain Rock, Chain Battery, Point Pleasant Battery, Northwest Arm Battery, Fort Ogilvie, Prince of Wales Tower and Cambridge Battery. Most were rebuilt or modified four or five times over the subsequent 200 years.

The first defences were constructed int 1762 and built of logs, earth, and stone. They were built with wood-burning fireplaces, and furnaces were later added for smelting cannon shot.

Chain Battery and Chain Rock were basic fortifications built on the natural terrain to protect the Northwest Arm. Unlike most of the other fortifications, the battery here was not rebuilt in the 1800s, so it retains its original 1762 layout. Because it was abandoned so early, the area has been reforested for most of the historic period.

Point Pleasant Battery is one of the oldest fortification batteries. Though Point Pleasant Battery was first constructed in 1762, what is visible today dates mostly from the early 1900s. The battery, just west of Point Pleasant, was damaged in 1895 and was falling into the sea. It was moved further along the Northwest Arm shore.

Northwest Arm Battery was first build in 1762 and disused after the 1860s. archaelogical remains associated with its barracks include a summer house built for the Park in the 1880s. The battery here retains its early 1800s configuration.

In 1792, the threat of an immediate French attack alerted the British military in Halifax to the possibility of a landing in the harbour and batteries were upgraded and improved. Fort Ogilvie was built at this time and is located in the eastern part of Point Pleasant Park. It was built by the order of General Ogilvie, then commander of the Halifax garrison. Ogilvie named the battery after himself.

In 1796-97, a battery was built on high ground behind the point at a location capable of defending the point batteries. A few years later, the battery was converted to a large round stone tower known as the Prince of Wales Tower, similar to the Martello Towers built in large numbers elsewhere by the British military. The Prince of Wales Tower is 26 feet high and is 72 feet in diameter. The exposed material is ironstone rubble masonry, with 8-foot thick walls. The original construction permitted six mounted guns on the roof and four guns on the second storey. Further modifications were made over the next seventy years. By 1813, the Tower mounted four 6-pound guns on garrison carriages on its barrack level, two 24-pound guns on traversing platforms and six 24-pound carronades on traversing slides on top. After 1864, the Tower was used as a self-defensible depot magazine.

Cambridge Battery is situated back from the Point Pleasant and Northwest Arm batteries along the shore. It was approved in 1862 and completed in 1868. The battery was named in honour of the Duke of Cambridge, who was the head of the military during much of Queen Victoria's reign. The battery was abandoned by the time of the First World War.

In 1929, the militarily temporarily vacated the park before returning in 1938 during the Second World War. Although the Martello tower ceased to be important for military purposes in the late 1800s, some of the other fortifications in the Park continued to be used by the military until the close of the Second World War. Fort Ogilvie and Cambridge Battery were upgraded with modern weapons during the Second World War. A gun from this era is still visible at Fort Ogilvie.

Other historic uses

The park was the site of several small farms during the early settlement of Halifax. A rock outcropping at Black Rock Beach was used to gibbet the bodies of executed criminal such as the pirate Edward Jordan in 1809. Small amounts of stone were quarried in the park in the 19th century, the small quarries today forming a pond near the park entrance. In the 1920s, the Halifax streetcar line was extended into the park as far as the Prince of Wales Tower but the route was abandoned in the 1940s.

It is a myth that the park is owned by the British Crown. All British Crown land was vested in the Canadian Crown in 1912. The present-day landowners of Point Pleasnat Park are the people of Canada as vested in the Canadian federal government (Crown in right of Canada) under the Federal Canadian Heritage Department. The original British Crown (the War Department) did, however, grant a 999 year lease to the Provincially-established Park Commission in 1866. The Park Commission ceased to exist under Provincial legislation in 1996 and the lease was transferred to the new Halifax Regional Municipality - whose representative purports to pay a nominal rent of one shilling per year at an out-door ceremony for its (fictitious) nominal leasehold which is in fact held by the Canadian - not the British - Government!

1994 bombing attempt

The park was the target of a "group" calling itself "Loki 7" in 1994, when they planted a pipe bomb in a garbage bin. Nobody was injured.

Hurricane Juan

In September, 2003, Point Pleasant Park was devastated by Hurricane Juan. Nearly three quarters of the park's trees were knocked down and the park remained closed until June 2004. While there are still trees remaining, the park now has a very thin canopy.

Assistance from the Canadian federal government has allowed Halifax Regional Municipality to make significant progress in the recovery and renewal of the park. As of June 2008 over 70,000 Acadian forest trees have been planted in the park, surpassing the number of trees lost to Hurricane Juan.

The recently released comprehensive plan for Point Pleasant Park proposes long-term care for the park's forest based on Canada's national standard for sustainable forest management. The process of Adaptive Management will be used to guide the renewal and care Point Pleasant, one of Canada's oldest urban parks.

External links

* [http://www.pointpleasantpark.ca Point Pleasant Park website]
* [http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/FPPP/ Friends of Point Pleasant Park]