Big Nickel - Opening

Opening

On July 27, 1964, the park was officially opened. Szilva was extremely pleased that John Fisher, the Canadian Centennial commissioner, accepted his invitation to come to Sudbury that day to unveil the impressive Big Nickel Monument to a crowd of 1,500 family, friends, dignitaries and local residents. There was extensive media coverage of the event by The Sudbury Star, Canadian Coin News, and other Canadian publications as well as television coverage. This monumental day marked both the culmination of many months of planning, and the beginning of an era, which would see The Big Nickel develop into a world-renowned landmark, and Sudbury into a tourist centre in the north.

In an attempt to market the park as a world class tourist attraction, Szilva co-operated with the Sudbury Jaycees under president Allan Barnard in Sudbury in entering a float into the November 28, 1964 Grey Cup Parade with a replica of the monument along with the newly crowned Miss Big Nickel.

The underground model mine was tunnelled and built in 1965 by J.C. MacIsaac, of MacIsaac Mining and Tunnelling Co., and was expanded by the same company in 1969. Not only was the underground mine visited by over 100,000 people every year, but the mine represented the first time in Canadian history that a private enterprise and an educational institution, Cambrian College, would collaborate in order to provide on-site practical training in all facets of mining for students.

The park was always expanding and adding new features. Some of these features included helicopter rides, a train which ran around the circumference of the park carrying 55 passengers, a carousel, the famous “jail”, moon module, and informative film. Articles and pictures featuring the Big Nickel appear in hundreds of books, and it is recognized as an international landmark.

The Big Nickel, as the world’s only numismatic coin park, also featured coin monuments other than the 1951 nickel. Some of these coin monuments were the $20 gold coin monument (featuring Arms of Canada), the Kennedy half-dollar coin memorial (featuring an eternal flame), the fantasy copper (Canadian one cent 1965) penny, and the Lincoln coin memorial (1965 American penny) and a Canadian dime, there is no public record of the dismantling or current location of these other numismatic monuments, though pictures still exist. Mayor Joe Fabbro dedicated the wampum monument and Brotherhood of Man Memorial in May 1975. This memorial symbolized the early money traded by Canada's Aboriginal peoples and European settlers.

Municipality of Sudbury to proceed with the development of a major tourist attraction, as the government was willing to grant the funds to non-profit organizations. Szilva sold the Big Nickel to the Regional Municipality of Sudbury for $550,000, and the Sudbury Science Centre, later to be named Science North, was founded.