Where Edmonton Magazine September/October 2017 | Page 16

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Edmonton is one of Canada’s top three sunniest
cities, along with Calgary and Winnipeg. Each
year Edmonton gets an average of 325 days of
sun, or 2,345 hours.
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West Edmonton
Mall no longer holds
the title of world’s
largest shopping mall,
but it does still boast
the Guinness world
record for the largest
parking lot. Holding
up to 20,000 cars
at once, it even tops
prime destinations like
Disneyland.
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At 64 metres high, the Great Divide Waterfall on the High
Level Bridge is seven metres higher than Niagara Falls.
The waterfall feature was installed by artist Peter Lewis in
1980 to celebrate Alberta’s 75th anniversary. Before being
shut off indefinitely in 2014 due to budget and environmental
concerns, it pumped water into the North Saskatchewan River
at a stunning 50,000 litres per minute.
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At 18,000
acres, the North
Saskatchewan River
Valley in Edmonton
is North America’s
largest continuous
urban green space.
There are 150
kilometres of trails for
year-round activities
and 22 parks in the
space. Much of the
land was privately
owned originally,
but became public
again when the city
seized back the
land after the North
Saskatchewan River
flooded in 1915.
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In 1987, an F-4 tornado ripped through
the city at speeds of 416 km/hr, killing
27 people and injuring numerous more. The
day the deadliest tornado in Alberta’s history
struck came to be known as “Black Friday.”
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Pigeon lovers
beware!
Edmonton Bylaw
13145 on Animal
Licensing states
clearly that
Edmontonians may
not keep more than
75 pigeons as pets.
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where.ca
// SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
Elk Island National Park
has the second-highest
density of hoofed mammals
(bison, moose, deer, and
elk) in the world, just behind
the Serengeti Plains of
Africa.
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A wedding of royal
proportions took
place in Edmonton on
July 16, 1988, when
Wayne Gretzky married
American actress Janet
Jones. Thousands of
Edmontonians lined
the streets between St.
Joseph’s Basilica and
the reception hoping to
catch a glimpse of the
new couple (and Janet’s
$40,000 gown). The
Edmonton Symphony
Orchestra serenaded the
couple down the aisle.
In 1990 an Edmonton
park was named after
James Ramsey, a man
credited with bringing the
penny to Edmonton in
1913 so that his popular
department store could
put on 99-cent sales.
Unfortunately, the city
misspelled his name, calling
it James Ramsay Park. The
misspelling of the park has
been noted by the city, but
never formally changed.
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