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FUN FACTS

The Metropolitan Parks System includes seventy-five sites which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first artificial snow making process was discovered and used at the Blue Hills Ski Area.

The only public rest rooms listed on the National Register of Historic Places are located in the Blue Hills.

In the Seventeenth Century, a sea serpent was reported swimming near Egg Rock, off Nahant Beach.

The MDC operates a recreational facility, the Thompson Center in Hyde Park, that is especially designed for people who are physically challenged.

Fort Warren's most famous use was as a Civil War prison. Over 2,000 prisoners were held there, including the Vice-President of the Confederacy, Alexander Hamilton Stephens.

WGBH gets its name because its radio tower is on Great Blue Hill.

In 1827 Edgar Allen Poe served in the Army on Castle Island. It has been alleged that his story, "The Cask of Amontillado" was based on a legend he heard there.

The Great Blue Hill was a signahng post during the Colonial Period. From this area was signaled the repeal of the Stamp Act and also the movement of British forces during the Revolutionary War.

Sylvanus Thayer, the "Father of West Point" supervised the construction of both Fort Warren and Fort Independence.

Salt marshes are, acre for acre, the most biologically productive ecosystems in the United States.

At one time the fortifications in and around Boston Harbor made the Port of Boston the third most defended harbor in the United States

Lovells Island was the alternative site for locating the Statue of Liberty.

In the 1840's ice from Spot Pond was shipped worldv^de. Frederick Tudor "the Ice King", who invented the

process which could store ice in ocean going ships, had a large ice cutting business and house on its shores.

The Civil War marching song, "John Brown's Body" was written on Georges Island; it later provided the melody for .lulia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Revere Beach was the first public beach in the United States.

The MDC offers lessons in the following sports: swimming, sailing, skating, golf, and skiing.

Dwelling in the Blue Hills Reservation are two venomous species of snakes: the eastern timber rattlesnake and the copperhead. Coyotes, red fox, turkey vultures, hawks, and owls can also be found here.

METROPOLITAN PARKS SYSTEM CENTENNIAL 1893-1993