Winnipeg: River History, Museums and Nature

Winnipeg offers several distinct themes for a trip: river history at The Forks, museums, protected nature and guided historical tours. If you’re looking for hotels in Winnipeg, these highlights can help you match the destination to your interests. The facts range from the long-standing role of a meeting place to a nature reserve for endangered tallgrass prairie.

The Forks and the history of the site

The Forks is in the centre of Winnipeg, at the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine River. For thousands of years, the site has served as a meeting place for Indigenous peoples, settlers and the people of present-day Winnipeg. The “One Heart, Two Rivers, Four Directions” tour explores these connections to the site: this nine-part tour looks at the ties between Indigenous communities and The Forks. Both its location at the confluence and its long-standing role as a meeting place are central to the experience.

Museums and different perspectives

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened in 2014 as the first national museum outside the National Capital Region. For visits, the CMHR offers a free mobile app in English, French, ASL and LSQ. It brings together audio guides, transcripts and an interactive map. The different formats complement the map with audio and text. For those interested in human rights, it offers another way to explore Winnipeg alongside the history of The Forks.

The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada has its own distinct focus. It is located on the grounds of Winnipeg Richardson International Airport and continues to hold one of Canada’s largest and most complete aviation heritage collections. Aviation heritage complements the themes of human rights and Indigenous history tied to the site. If a museum is your main interest, the collection offers a specific focus within Winnipeg’s broader profile.

Indoor biomes and protected prairie

Nature is presented in different ways in Winnipeg. The Leaf features four unique indoor biomes: the Hartley and Heather Richardson Tropical Biome, the Mediterranean Biome, the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden and the Babs Asper Display House. Their names give a clear sense of the range of the four indoor spaces. This makes it easy to distinguish The Leaf as a distinct attraction from a nature reserve.

The Living Prairie Museum protects endangered tallgrass prairie. In contrast to the indoor biomes at The Leaf, its focus is protecting a specific landscape. Winnipeg therefore offers a clearly defined nature and conservation theme alongside its museums.

Architecture on a guided tour

The Exchange District offers guided historical tours that bring Winnipeg’s architecture and stories to life. This experience differs from museum visits organised around specific themes: here, architecture and narrated city history come together on a tour. If you’d like to include tours like these in your travel plans, the Exchange District is another way to explore Winnipeg through its history.

Manitoba as a regional setting

If you’d like to look beyond the city, Manitoba offers a broader regional setting. The province has 93 provincial parks that protect more than four million hectares of diverse landscapes. The galleries of the Manitoba Museum present Manitoba’s human and natural history from north to south. Highway 6 runs north along the shores of Lake Manitoba towards the Hudson Bay coast; check road conditions separately before you travel. Northern Lights can be seen in Manitoba up to 300 nights per year, although visibility depends on conditions.

Discover more destinations: Saint-Laurent, Emerson.

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