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The Start marker for making the 5 mile hike around Greenfield Lake.

Greenfield Lake and Park is 250 acres in downtown Wilmington, NC. The park and lake are surrounded by Lake Shore Drive and its main entrance is off 3rd Street near the Carolina Beach Road intersection. The park includes a man-made lake, Boat House, tennis courts, children’s playgrounds, picnic shelters, a concession stand, outdoor amphitheater, a skateboard park, a “fragrance garden” of aromatic flowering plants, hiking trails, a 5 mile multi-use paved pathway, bridges and scenic observation decks. Facilities are free to the public. Paddleboats and canoes are available to rent from the Cape Fear River Watch, a local environmental advocacy group, in season.

History

Local residents and visitors often think Greenfield Lake's name comes from the dark green color of the water in the lake in the present day. However, the current lake, which averages 4-5 feet in depth, was a natural stream and wetland. Dr. Samuel Green, around 1730, dammed the stream to create a millpond and a spillway to run his mill. By the mid-18th Century the area became a lake.

Cypress trees grow in and around Greenfield Lake.

When the Wilmington trolley lines extended to the lake in 1912, visitors started coming to the property. In 1918, the owners of Bijou Theatre opened an amusement park that stayed in business for only a season or two. It was complete with a petting zoo, roller coaster, and a hippodrome. The only attraction that lasted, off and on, was the petting zoo, until the 1980s.

In 1925 the City of Wilmington bought the lake property for $25,000. WPA Workers were put to work on the grounds during the Great Depression. They did landscaping, cleared underbrush, built terraces, and constructed the road which surrounds the park today, Lake Shore Drive.