On your left, you will spot a tall, square red brick tower topped with a peaked roof, featuring open arches that display rows of bronze bells and large metallic salmon sculptures leaping out of its stone base.
Those leaping fish are the Spiraling Salmon installation, created by Jim Demetro, the very same artist who sculpted the statue of Captain Vancouver we saw a few minutes ago. This sixty-nine-foot monument stands here thanks to a staggering three million dollar donation in two thousand two from George Propstra, the founder of the local Burgerville restaurant chain. He had a fierce vision to create Vancouver's living room. This is a perfect example of grassroots grit. Instead of waiting for outside help, local business leaders rallied together, pouring their own fortunes into revitalizing a neglected space to build something lasting. Propstra was fiercely protective of this park. He would patrol the grounds on his motorized scooter, once angrily calling organizers just to demand they clean some white powder off the masonry.
That brickwork houses something incredibly special. It features a glockenspiel, a mechanical diorama combined with musical bells, that emerges to tell a vital story from the Chinookan peoples. When the automated doors open, it depicts a great chief and villagers respectfully cooking and eating a special first salmon. Afterward, the villagers carefully gather every uneaten bone and return them to the river current. Why? So the spirit of the salmon can journey back to the sea, regain its human form, and tell its underwater tribe that the land dwellers treated it with deep respect.
Sadly, highly chlorinated water from the fountain below eventually rusted the tower's steel core. The mechanical doors jammed, the audio fell silent, and some people actually campaigned to tear the whole structure down. But this town pushes back when its heart is threatened. In twenty twenty-four, the city authorized a massive repair project, battling through unexpected rust and delays to save the structure. They refused to let their community anchor rot away, finally rededicating the thirty-five bells in twenty twenty-five.
Let us transition out of the park now and head toward another testament to this city's resilience, the historic Evergreen Hotel, which is just a four-minute walk away.
