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At the mouth
of the Mimico Creek are the two landspits of Humber Bay Park. Mimico
comes from the Indian word "Omineca" meaning home of the wild pigeons.
Huge flocks of pidgeons were known to have inhabited the area at
one time. On April 27, 1813, Humber Bay sheltered fourteen American
warships under the command of Brigadier Pike of Pike's Peak fame
(a 4301M high mountain in Colorado); nearly two thousand soldiers
were preparing to raid and set fire to the Parliament Building further
east during the War of 1812.
Humber Bay
Village was an early lakefront community with close commercial and
recreational ties to the water. The park maintains a recreational
focus for residents and visitors established during the mid-1800's
when a number of hotels were built including the Royal Oak Hotel
operated by a Scot named Octavius L. Hicks, John Duck's Wimbledon
House, and a hotel operated by the famed distance runner Charles
Nurse. Boating and other watersports were enjoyed here during the
hot summer months. Town council meetings were often held in the
Humber Bay hotels.
Developed by
the former Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
with 5.1 million cubic metres of lakefill, at a cost of $6.56 million,
Humber Bay Park was opened by Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird
on June 11, 1984. Several habitat restoration projects have been
initiated at Humber Bay Park including the planting of Carolinian
trees and shrubs, the establishment of wildflower meadows and the
creation of a warm-water fish habitat and wetland on the east peninsula.
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