Heritage Research
Introduction
Welcome to The Forks Bibliography, a searchable web site of great information about pre-contact (pre-fur trade) and recent historical details of one of Canada’s most prominent historic zones known as The Forks, at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.
Consistent with managing a significant heritage area, archaeological and historical, planning and thematic reports have been assembled since 1979. You will be able to search for these documents through an annotated bibliography for over 70 of the major titles, with over 240 entries to date. More annotations will be added from time to time.
Who can use this information?
It is anticipated that this database will be of interest to academics, teachers and instructors, secondary, post-secondary and post–graduate students, planners, historical and heritage institutions, collectors, archaeologists and curators, historians, authors and individuals interested in the history of The Forks.
What is available?
There is evidence that First Nations hunters and gatherers came to The Forks at least 6000 years ago. The assembled materials present an excellent overview of activity at The Forks since the post-glacial era. Recovered artifacts attest to a site that has experienced many events: vibrant trading relationships and use of resources between adjacent Aboriginal peoples; the effect of contact between Europeans and Native inhabitants; new uses of the area during fur trade and early European style settlement; the bustle of life at the site during a steamboat and early railroad era; and the conversion of the site to a modern urban commercial and historical meeting place since 1989.
How to use this site…
Visitors are encouraged to search by key words, document title, and/or author. Materials available for download or printing from PDF format are red and underlined. Each entry identifies the location for the original document. This site will be periodically updated with additional annotations and digitized materials.
Acknowledgements
The Forks would like to acknowledge the contributions of The Forks Heritage Committee and Parks Canada towards the development of the Heritage Research web site.
