Lost Lagoon

Lost Lagoon is an artificial 16.6-hectare (41 acre) body of water, west of Georgia Street, near the entrance to Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The lake was created in 1916 by the construction of the Stanley Park causeway; until then, Lost Lagoon was a shallow part of Coal Harbour, which itself is an extension of Burrard Inlet.

Native food gatherers used the low tide mudflats as a source for clams, and a midden on the north side indicates that a large dwelling once stood there.

As with most of the early controversies concerning the use of Stanley Park, organized labour was pitted against the more upper and middle class proponents of the City Beautiful movement.

Trade union representatives argued that the majority working class population was in need of recreational facilities, while their opponents maintained that more aesthetic or ethereal considerations should take precedence in park development.

The proposal the board settled on featured an artificial lake with a sports stadium on the northwest side and a large museum on the southwest shore.

[8] Civic budgets were significantly reduced during the depression, but the park board benefited from the free labour of relief recipients, who were used to landscape Lost Lagoon.

After a business trip to Los Angeles he saw a fountain and thought this would be a great gift for the city for their up and coming birthday, Golden Jubilee celebration.

"When operating , it is like a symphony concert, in motion and color instead of music, says Harold Williams, engineer, of Hume & Rumble Ltd., under whose personal supervision the work has been done."

On the southeast corner of the lake is the Lost Lagoon Nature House, an old boathouse that is now an interpretive centre for the Stanley Park Ecology Society.