Assiniboine Park is a park in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. It was established in 1904 and is located north of the Assiniboine Forest. Today, it covers 1100 acres (445.2 ha), 400 acres (161.9 ha) of these are designed in the English landscape style.
The Park includes the 700 acres (283.3 ha) Assiniboine Forest, Assiniboine Park Zoo

Assiniboine Park Zoo

Assiniboine Park Zoo is a zoo that was established in 1904 at the West end of Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Zoological Society of Manitoba was formed in 1956 to provide the vision and funding for the zoo....

, Assiniboine Park Conservatory, the historic Assiniboine Park Pavilion

Assiniboine Park Pavilion

The historic Assiniboine Park Pavilion in Winnipeg is located in Assiniboine Park along the Assiniboine River....

, formal and informal gardens, a sculpture garden, a miniature railway, and an outdoor bandshell theatre for performing arts and numerous other attractions. A private minimum gauge railway

Minimum gauge railway

Minimum gauge railways have a gauge of less than or , most commonly , , or . The notion of minimum gauge railways was originally developed by estate railways and by the French company of Decauville for industrial railways....

 named the Assiniboine Valley Railway

Assiniboine Valley Railway

Assiniboine Valley Railway is a private 1:7.5 scale minimum gauge railway located in the community of Charleswood near Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada....

 is located near the zoo.

Prominent attractions

The English Garden

English garden

The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...

, established between 1926 and 1927, is known throughout North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 for its luxuriant display of thousands of annual and perennial flowers. The English Garden contains nearly three acres of flowers, shrubs and trees in the traditional English style. A large rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

 garden (with more than 400 bushes of Floribunda, Grandiflora and Rugosa varieties), broken into four sections, surrounds a central lily pond containing fish.

From the outset, the English Garden was designed to serve as a popular park attraction where local residents and tourists could obtain information about specialized floriculture in Manitoba. New plant varieties have been introduced annually.
Other prominent features of Assiniboine Park include the Assiniboine Park Pavilion, which became a focus of early Winnipeg's social life. Destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt in Early English style and is today one of Winnipeg's most familiar landmarks. The highly regarded zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

, with about 90 acres (36.4 ha), contains over 300 animal species. The Formal Garden, located at the southeast park entrance, is Winnipeg's largest and finest example of the French formal garden.

The Lyric Theatre is a large outdoor stage located next to the Pavilion. It opened in 1999. It carries on the tradition of a bandshell near the Pavilion that started in the 1920s.

One of the earliest park features and a major indoor attraction is The Conservatory

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

, which houses more than 8,000 flowers, plants and trees that are non-native to Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, but which grow profusely under the ideal conditions created in the Palm

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 House and Display Garden. The original Palm House was erected in 1914, and in 1968 a fully modern structure was built over and around the Palm House, enclosing it. The Conservatory and English Garden are open free of charge to the public every day of the year.

The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, opened in 1992, contains over one hundred of Leo Mol

Leo Mol

Leo Mol, OC, OM was a Ukrainian Canadian artist and sculptor.Born Leonid Molodozhanyn in Polonne, Ukraine, Mol studied sculpture at the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1936 to 1940. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union he moved to Germany where he was influenced by Arno Breker...

's works. Toward the north of the park, and just to one side of the pedestrian

Pedestrian

A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...

 footbridge from Portage Avenue is the serpentine Duck Pond. The park also includes picnic areas.

Adjacent to Roblin Boulevard, the last steam locomotive to run scheduled service in Canada, CNR 6043, Class U-1-d, 4-8-2, is on permanent display courtesy of the Winnipeg Railway Museum

Winnipeg Railway Museum

The Winnipeg Railway Museum is a non-profit organization operated by volunteers from the Midwestern Rail Association. The museum is located on tracks 1 and 2 within Winnipeg's Via Rail operated Union Station in Manitoba, Canada.- Overview :...

.

Sports

There are playgrounds, bicycle path, baseball and cricket 2 fields with 3 cricket pitches (Upper & lower grounds)and clubhouse on site and It is also Manitoba Cricket League’s premier facility to host club cricket. (Turf wickets are going to be installed on the cricket field and used for the under nineteen world cup in 2012). Terry Fox

Terry Fox

Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox , was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research...

Fitness Trail, dedicated to his memory and constructed for disabled and non-disabled individuals alike. Assiniboine Park is wheelchair-accessible.

Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project

Assiniboine Park began an ongoing riverbank restoration project beginning in 2006 and continuing each summer.

The Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest (the strip of forest along the Assiniboine River within Assiniboine Park, just east of the footbridge on the south side of Portage Avenue) is a well known and loved recreational area. Over many years, the forest has lost a lot of vegetation due to flooding, invasive plant species that replace native species, and trampling from recreational activities such as hiking and biking. Generations of heavy trail use has caused extensive trail networks, soil compaction, and large areas of bare ground. The Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project is striving to help the riparian forest bounce back from heavy use and enhance the recreational trail experience.

Restoration is underway in the forest through careful planning, cooperation from trail-users and efforts such as tree planting, invasive species removal and creating a main trail. By reducing the impact of recreation in the forest, this natural area still be around for generations to enjoy 100 years from now.