There are many National Historic Sites in Canada, but few draw the crowds that the Forks does in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is one of the most visited heritage destinations on the Prairies, welcoming roughly four million visitors each year. The Forks sits where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet, and its popularity owes much both to its central downtown location and to its long history. For thousands of years before European arrival, Indigenous peoples gathered at this meeting of the waters to trade, fish, and camp, making the rivers the region's earliest highway for people and goods.
The fur trade transformed the site in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Rival companies built posts nearby to exchange European manufactured goods for furs, and the junction became a busy hub of commerce. Control of the area passed back and forth as competing interests struggled for the rich trade, and a small settlement slowly took root along the banks. By the late nineteenth century the railway had arrived, and the riverside filled with rail yards, stables, and warehouses that served a growing city. For decades the area was a working transportation centre rather than a place for the public.
