The Forks is a historic site and meeting place in Downtown Winnipeg located at the confluence of the Red River and 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.
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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. During the small pox epidemics of 1781–1782, over half of the areas aboriginal population died. At this time over 1,000 Aboriginal men, women and children were buried in The Old Aboriginal Graveyard at The Forks.
Europeans arrived by canoe in 1738. La Vérendrye erected Fort Rouge, the first of a long line of forts and trading posts erected in the area. The Red River Colony and the forts were all established near The Forks. The area remained the hub of the fur trade up until the 1880s. At that time, grain production became Western Canada’s principal industry and the main transportation for that industry was rail rather than waterways.
The Forks Market's first floor contains mostly food shops, where specialty items can be found as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. The second floor is home to many unique to winnipeg shops like pylon pop culture, as well as a ballet conservatory and a large craft store among other things. Across the large courtyard is Johnson Terminal, home of Finn's Pub, an Old Spaghetti Factory, more shops and a large cooperative antique store in the basement. There are often buskers in and around the Forks, who must audition for a buskers license to perform there. Flooding is a perennial problem, with the Forks river walkway often underwater in the spring.
Manitoba Theatre for Young People is a theatre for children and young adults in located adjacent to the Forks Market. It was founded in 1965 as Actors' Showcase and incorporated in 1977. In 1982, it became a professional theatre devoted to young people. For many years, the theatre operated out of the Gas Station Theatre in the Osborne Village area of the city but in 1999 the theatre move to its new location in the CanWest Global Performing Arts Centre, a 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) facility for MTYP and its school.
The Winnipeg International Children's Festival is a children's festival held annually at The Forks. It was founded in 1983 and was held at Assiniboine Park for many years before moving to its present location. It is held every June. The festival is made up of 30 acts, held over four days, for a total of approximately 120 performances.
In 2005, it was announced that a new skatepark would be built on the grounds near The Forks. "The Plaza" as it is now known, was built with money donated from the J.W. Burns Family Foundation. It is one of the largest skateparks in Canada and is renowned not only for its size, but also its pleasant style and diversity. In 2006, the park was visited by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk to shoot scenes for his movie release Secret Skatepark Tour 3.[1]
The skatepark includes a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) skate plaza, and an 8,500-square-foot (790 m2) 'bowl complex'. The design features 'skateable' artwork, and is built to tolerate the regular use and enjoyment of skateboarders and cyclists. The park was also designed to integrate into the urban architecture of the city. It was designed by New Line Skateparks.[2]
While at The Plaza, skateboarders, BMXers, mountain bikers and inline skaters are encouraged by staff members (whose work includes teaching skaters/bikers the ethics of the park) to share the park harmoniously with one another.
In winter, this area features a small snowboarding facility. While it is very small when compared to a proper ski operation, it attracts some of the same skateboarders, dressed for a day of winter fun.
On September 5, 2000, Winnipeg's City Council approved the preliminary design and authorized the start of detailed design and environmental licensing for the Paired Bridges, to replace the existing Provencher Bridge.
The Paired Bridges design includes two separate bridges—one designed primarily for vehicles and commuter cyclists and the other designed exclusively for pedestrians, cyclists, and recreational users. The slender-profile vehicular bridge includes two through lanes in each direction, divided by a centre median, and features a short right turn lane for traffic turning onto Ave Tache southbound. The pedestrian bridge is a modern cable-stayed structure, light and elegant, featuring a large plaza for commercial activities—a meeting place that will connect Provencher Boulevard to The Forks physically, economically and culturally. The support structure at the median of the pedestrian bridge was built to accommodate a multi-million dollar restaurant facility which is now owned and operated by Salisbury House. This restaurant was chosen for its symbolic nature of Winnipeg culture.
The Paired Bridges are expected to strengthen the connection between The Forks and the St. Boniface French Quarter, becoming a symbolic gateway between two of Winnipeg's most historically significant communities and promoting commerce and tourism.
The Forks will be the location of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (the first national museum outside of Ottawa) once it has completed construction in 2012.
In January 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized The Forks as the home of the longest skating rink in the world.[3] The 8.54-kilometre-long Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail on the Assiniboine River and the Red River is almost 1 kilometer longer than the previous record-holding rink. The 7.8-kilometre long rink on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Ontario has lost its World Record title which it had held since 1971. Then in 2008 the rivers beat their own record which made the longest rink go to about 9.3-kilometres. The Rideau Canal, however, still holds the world record for the world's largest outdoor rink (as measured by total area).
The length of the skating trail at The Forks changes each year, depending on river and ice conditions, although a concerted effort is made to make it as long as possible. In the winter of 2010/2011, conditions on The Assiniboine River made it impossible to safely create skating westward, so the path extended instead south on the Red River. Essentially, the water level and the weather at the time of freeze-up will impact the way the ice forms (see frazil ice, for example), how stable it will be, and how smoothly it can be made for skating. Much of the local river ice in Winnipeg in the winter of 2010/2011 was very rough, certainly too rough to form a skating surface. There is also a skating trail made overland which is not impacted by river conditions. There are also walking and ski trails running parallel to the skating trail.
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