“The Iroquois and Algonquin peoples lived in the area for thousands of years, followed by the Ojibway peoples during the mid-1600s. European settlers then farmed the land until the early 1990s when the area was urbanized. At this time, Park 317 was established by the City.

In 2009, 68 mm of rain fell in one hour in Mississauga, causing Cooksville Creek to flood. This approximately 100-year flood event damaged buildings, municipal infrastructure, pedestrian bridges and trails and compromised channel protection measures. The subsequent flood study identified Park 317 as a retrofit opportunity that could reduce the occurrence of flooding of dwellings and properties downstream within the Cooksville Creek watershed, reduce the extent and frequency of erosion, improve water quality and aquatic habitat and provide additional recreational opportunities for the community. Construction of the park retrofit project began in 2015 with the final landscaping completed in 2018. The park opened to the public in 2020.

During the construction period, a group of Vietnamese Canadians formed the ‘Saigon Park Working Committee’ and requested that the City of Mississauga adopt the name ‘Saigon Park’ for one of the City’s parks. In 2017, the City decided that the re-constructed Park 317 would be renamed ‘Saigon Park’ to commemorate the fall of Saigon and recognize the thousands of Vietnamese refugees who fled, many of which settled in this area of Mississauga.**”**
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*The art piece has four steel panels, representing the four seasons and each contain four vertical columns representing the months within that season. Hieroglyphs are used to depict the weather conditions that occurred that month as well as corresponding moon cycles, average temperatures, precipitation and wind patterns.*