Sights in Manitoba
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Eskimo Museum
The Eskimo Museum is really just a bunch of stuff in an unexciting room with linoleum floors, but there's no denying its charm. The obvious standouts - stuffed polar bear, musk ox, wolf and walrus - are immediate attention-grabbers, but closer inspection reveals tiny arrowheads, big harpoon blades and hundreds of carvings. The staff are informative and approachable, and recorded narratives elicit new appreciation for the people who survived and prospered on such a desolate landscape.
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Wapusk National Park
Established primarily to protect polar bear breeding grounds (wapusk is Cree for 'white bear'), the remote and young Wapusk National Park extends along Hudson Bay's shores 45km east of Churchill. Its location between boreal forests and arctic tundra gives it importance for monitoring the effects of global warming. Changes in sea-level, temperature, vegetation, and polar bear and other animal patterns happen here first.
The park's ecological sensitivity has required a lot of proactive thinking and red tape. It's possible to visit, but only through licensed tour operators.
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Forks National Historic Site
The Forks National Historic Site attracts people for recreation, transportation, trade, culture and ceremonies. In a beautiful riverside setting, modern amenities for performances and interpretive exhibits outline the area's history. Maintained footpaths line the riverbank with plaques in English, French and Cree. The Market Building and Johnston Terminal buzz with shoppers at produce stands, international art and craft shops, multiethnic food stalls and restaurants.
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Manitoba Legislative Building
Designed during Winnipeg's optimistic boom of the early 1900s, the Manitoba Legislative Building flaunts neoclassical beaux-arts design, limestone construction and governmental importance. Surrounded by impeccable gardens, ancient gods and contemporary heroes are immortalized here, including the Louis Riel monument facing St Boniface. 'Eternal Youth and the Spirit of Enterprise' - aka Golden Boy - shines his 23½-carat gold-covered splendor atop the copper dome.
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Fort Prince of Wales
It took 40 years to build and its cannons never fired a shot, but the star-shaped stone Fort Prince of Wales has been standing prominently on rocky Eskimo Point across the Churchill River since the 1770s. As English-French tensions mounted in the 1720s, HBC selected the site for presence and strategy, but surrendered during the first French attack. The walls are currently under a stabilization project but the site can still be toured.
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York Factory National Historic Site
Even more remote, 250km southeast of Churchill, the HBC trading post, the York Factory National Historic Site, near Hayes River, was an important gateway to the interior and active for 273 years until 1957. The stark-white buildings are an amazing sight contrasting with their seemingly middle-of-nowhere setting. York Factory is accessible only by air, boat or (for the very determined and experienced) canoe.
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St Paul's Anglican Church
The historic and illuminating St Paul's Anglican Church is about 100 times more beautiful on the inside than the outside. The stained-glass windows seen in afternoon light are simply breathtaking. Behind the church is Thanadelthur's Cairn, a small tribute to a Chipewyan woman who helped HBC arrange a treaty between her tribe and the rival Cree, allowing the fort to be built in Churchill.
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Manitoba Museum
This is hands down one of the best locally focused museums on the continent; if you're not going elsewhere in the province, definitely visit the provincial Manitoba Museum. Nature trips through the sub-Arctic, history trips into 1920s Winnipeg, cultural journeys covering the past 12,000 years - if it happened in Manitoba, it's here.
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Sloop's Cove
Four kilometers south of the fort, Sloop's Cove was a harbor for European vessels during Churchill's harsh winters. The only indications of early explorers are simple yet profound: names such as Samuel Hearn, local 18th-century governor and first to make an overland trip to the Arctic Ocean, are carved into the seaside rocks.
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St Boniface Museum
Next door to the St Boniface Basilica, a mid-19th-century convent is the St Boniface Museum, Winnipeg's oldest building and the largest oak-log construction on the continent. It focuses on the establishment of St Boniface, the birth of the Métis nation, and the Grey Nuns' 3000km journey.
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St Boniface Basilica
Mostly destroyed by fire in 1968, the original facade still stands as a 100-year, imposing, God-fearing reminder of the St Boniface Basilica , that once stood here. A more current structure was rebuilt on the ruins and Louis Riel rests in the cemetery.
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Royal Canadian Mint
Got around C$19 in change dragging your pocket? Thank the Royal Canadian Mint. The pyramid-shaped glass facility offers tours showing how it makes every single Canadian coin, as well as pieces for other countries, at a rate of 15 million per day.
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Graffiti Gallery
Street artists need a place to showcase their work and the Exchange's vibrancy provides a natural fit. Inner-city Graffiti Gallery teaches development by taking young artists away from tagging buildings and focusing their energy on creativity.
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Fort Gibraltar
Behind the wooden walls sits this re-created 1809 fur trade fort, Fort Gibraltar. Inspired interpreters, real clothes, tools, furs, bunks, bannock and blacksmith shops re-create 1810 life at The Forks, the fort's original location.
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Cape Merry
A lone cannon behind a crumbling wall is all that's left of the battery built at Cape Merry, 2km northwest of town. It's an incredibly beautiful location in its own right and, during summer, belugas can be seen from the shore.
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Dalnavert Museum
Restored to its original Queen Anne Revival architectural style, the Dalnavert Museum is the former home of Sir Hugh John MacDonald, son of Canada's first prime minister. It has been refurnished with original pieces.
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Upper Fort Garry Gate
Under threat from development, the original oak, stone and mortar at this small site of the Upper Fort Garry Gate stoically and bravely stands, where four different forts have stood since 1738, amid modern Winnipeg.
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Manitoba Children's Museum
Kids learn by doing at Manitoba Children's Museum, where 'hands off' is not part of the program. The colorful, interactive exhibits encourage tykes to act as train conductors, astronauts and TV producers.
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Fort Whyte
Fort Whyte teaches sustainable living and how to lower carbon footprints. In addition to spotting bison, deer and other wildlife, visitors can learn about sod houses and rent activity gear.
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Assiniboine Park Zoo
White snow leopards, white Bengal tigers and polar bears are some of the 1800 animals seen close-up at Assiniboine Park Zoo, which specializes in animals indigenous to harsher climates.
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Riel House
After Louis Riel's execution for treason, his body was brought to his childhood home, Riel House, before being buried in St Boniface. The plain cottage is a life-sized tribute, c 1886.
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Plug In Institute of Contemporary Arts
Showcasing contemporary works since the 1970s, the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Arts has gained international recognition for encouraging all forms of media.
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Winnipeg Art Gallery
The ship-shaped Winnipeg Art Gallery plots a course for contemporary Manitoban and Canadian artists, which includes an excellent collection of Inuit work.
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Artspace
Across from Old Market Square in the Exchange District, Artspace is a massive renovated warehouse which provides studios for Winnipeg's array of talents.
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Manitoba Theatre for Young People
The much-heralded Manitoba Theatre for Young People uses colorful sets for enthusiastic performances for kids without being too patronizing for adults.
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