The Forks, Winnipeg, Manitoba
| The Forks | |
|---|---|
| Historic meeting place / Neighbourhood | |
The Forks Market Tower
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| Coordinates: 49°53′13″N 97°07′50″W / 49.88694°N 97.13056°WCoordinates: 49°53′13″N 97°07′50″W / 49.88694°N 97.13056°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Manitoba |
| City | Winnipeg |
| Website | |
| Official name | The Forks National Historic Site of Canada |
| Designated | 1974 |
The Forks is a historic site, meeting place and green space in Downtown Winnipeg located at the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine River. For at least 6000 years, the Forks has been the meeting place for early aboriginal peoples, and since colonization has also been a meeting place for European fur traders, Métis buffalo hunters, Scottish settlers, riverboat workers, railway pioneers and tens of thousands of immigrants.
The Forks was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1974 due to its status as a cultural landscape that had borne witness to six thousand years of human activity. The site's 5.5-hectare (14-acre; 0.021 sq mi) grounds are open year-round.
Numerous archaeological digs have shown that early Aboriginal groups arrived at The Forks site around 6,000 years ago. The digs conducted between 1989 and 1994 discovered several Aboriginal camps. Artifacts related to the bison hunt and fishing were unearthed. Evidence showed that Nakoda (Assiniboins), Cree, Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) and Sioux (Dakota) visited the site. Seasonal migration routes from northern forests to southern plains featured the Forks area as a rest stop, and the location became a key transcontinental trade link.
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