Day 1 - Winnipeg - Including Bison!
Friday, November 8
Our day of touring began with a sculpture garden near our hotel and the Forks Market (“Forks” being where two rivers meet in the center of the city). The most prominent feature is the Oodena Circle which pays homage to the 6,000 years of Aboriginal peoples in the area. Oodena is Ojibwe for “heart of the community.”
The Oodena Circle:
BISON !!!
FortWhyte Alive is a 660 acre urban nature center which provides programming, natural settings, and facilities for environmental education, and outdoor recreation. They also have the only urban herd of bison in the world! There are about 40 bison that live there in a big field surrounded by houses just 15 minutes from downtown Winnipeg.
We drove out into the pasture and up next to a wire fence. The bison were a 100 yards away or so. Over the next 30 minutes or so the bison made their way up to the fence so that they were just a few feet from us! And a couple of them crawled through the fence even. Our guide who takes groups out several times a week, said she’s never had them come over to the van from so far away before. What a treat!
After the bison, we went on a walk through the grounds of the nature center, including through a little forest of Trembling Aspen trees.
Church of the Precious Blood - The first Roman Catholic church built in Winnipeg after Vatican II (1968)
The Church of the Precious Blood
St. Boniface Cathedral
The cathedral burned down in 1968 leaving only the facade. The bishop at the time decided with the reforms of Vatican II that they should rebuild in a style less formal and more fitting for western Canada.
Our last visit of the day was to the Manitoba Museum where we learned about the history of the Manitoba and Churchill from prehistoric times until modern times.
The Nonsuch was a merchant sailing ship built in England in 1650. She sailed from England in 1668 to trade for furs in Hudson Bay. The success of this trip encouraged investors to establish the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670.
In 1968, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Hudson’s Bay Company, they built (in England) this replica using 17th century hand tools, and then sailed it to Winnipeg. After putting it in place on the property, they built the museum around it.
In the evening we had our Welcome Dinner and Presentation to prepare for flight to Churchill tomorrow! Be sure to follow the daily Churchill Polar Bear Reports here!