11 fun facts as The Forks in Winnipeg turns 25

In honour of the 25th anniversary of The Forks National Historic Site, CBC has dug up some fun facts about the popular attraction and reached out to the man who led the development.

NickDiakiw, thefirst president and CEO, wasinstrumental in the efforts to return the formerrail yard at theconfluenceof the Red andAssiniboineriversinto a gathering place, which it had been for some 6,000 years.

First Nations camped at and used the forks to meet and later exchange goods with Europeanfur traders.Scottish settlers, riverboat workers, railway pioneers and tens of thousands of immigrants followed and the birthplace of Winnipeg grew.

Athree-metre-deep excavation site, which became theOodenaCelebration Circle, unearthed what local archaeologists call the archaic horizon a 3,000-year-old layer of soil rich in artifacts.

The Forks was designated aNational Historic Site of Canadain 1974 due to its status as acultural landscape, according to the Canadian Register of Historic Places.

The current site opened Oct.4, 1989, featuringthe riverwalk,amphitheatre, boat dock, heritage adventure playground, interpretive area and of course, the marketplace, which was created by the joining of two brick cartagecompany stables built in 1910 and 1911.

While The Forks is lauded as one of Winnipeg`s greatest tourist attractions and often serves as the site for celebrations the return of the Jets, Canada Day fireworks ithas not been without its criticisms, particularly the riverwalk, which seems to always be underwater.

Diakiw said the impact from flooding, which has become almost a spring norm now, was virtually nil" back then.

• City committee 'delighted' with plan for Forks parking lots

Future development in the area now calls for two large parking lots across from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to be turned into apedestrian plaza with green space and several mixed-use residentialunits that would have businesses along the ground floor.A portion of the land would also be earmarked fora cultural centre.

Residential plans were part of the vision 25 years ago but "the whole idea of residential development was never popular with the public," Diakiw said.

Forks facts:

• Number of acres: 56
• Number of yearly visitors: 4 million
• Height of The Forks Market tower: 6 storeys or 60 feet
• Canopy and skating rink opened: 1990
• Marina, harbour,and lighthouse opened in 1991.
• Oodena Celebration Circleopened in 1993 but was fully completed in 2004. The aimwas to create a spiritual heartamong the commercial and recreational developments. Its name come from the Ojibwa word meaning heart of the city.
• The Johnston Terminal building,originally built between 1928 and 1930, opens as a marketin 1993.
• Manitoba Childrens Museum (in a building first constructed in 1889) opened: 1994
• Manitoba Theatre For Young People opened:1999
• Skateboard Plaza opened: 2006
• Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened: 2014