Winnipeg is the capital city of the prairie province of Manitoba. Manitoba is situated near the geographic center of the North American continent Winnipeg lies at the junction of the Assiniboine River and the North-flowing Red River. This junction has come to be know as The Forks, and has a rich history of being a "meeting place" for early settlers in the Red River Valley. The Forks has been developed and still to this day remains to be a "meeting place for markets steeped in cultural diversity and history."

Maps courtesy of Destination Winnipeg

French-speaking fur traders were the first to settle at the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers where Winnipeg now lies. French explorers built Fort Rouge in 1738. The North West Company built Fort Gibraltar, later called Fort Garry, in 1804. A few years later the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Douglas. Lord Selkirk of the Hudson's Bay Company led Scottish immigrants to the site in 1811 and established the Red River Settlement. The companies later merged and named their settlement Winnipeg, from the Cree Indian words meaning "muddy water," and it was incorporated in 1873. In 1881 the Canadian Pacific Railway first came through Winnipeg. In January 1972 nearby municipalities were absorbed into the city.

POPULATION: 670,000 AREA: 145 square miles (280 square kilometers) ALTITUDE: 239 meters (776 feet) above sea level