Winnipeg

This is an extract from my newest book called

9 Canadian Cities: Victoria to Montreal via Whitehorse and Yellowknife

Close to the Winnipeg Art Gallery is the Manitoba Legislative Building dating from 1920. The surrounding grass and gardens hold some notable sculptures including a memorial to the Ukrainian poet Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814-1861) by the New York sculptor Andrew Daragan and aided by Winnipeg sculptor Roman Kowal. Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker unveiled this sculpture on the west grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building on 9 July 1961. About fifty yards away is another monument, this time to the famous five women I mentioned in Calgary, who, this time, are standing by or seated at a table discussing their plans.

Near to the Union Station is the large railway hotel called the Fort Garry Hotel dating from 1913. Over the road from the hotel is an historic site, Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, which was a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. This post was set up in 1822 close to the former site of the North West Company’s Fort Gibraltar which was destroyed in 1816.

Fort Garry was named after Nicholas Garry, deputy governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This post served as the centre of the fur trade within the Red River Colony. In 1826, a severe flood destroyed the fort. HBC rebuilt the fort in 1835 and named it Upper Fort Garry to differentiate it from Lower Fort Garry, 32 km downriver, which was established in 1831. Throughout the mid-to-late 19th century, Upper Fort Garry was central to the administration of the HBC and the surrounding settlement.