Thousands of years of marine commerce in the Windsor area is being chronicled in a new public space.
Port Windsor has unveiled Prosperity Place as the name of its new outdoor space dedicated to the area's colourful and rich marine history. The space is adjacent to the port authority's west Windsor headquarters.
According to a media release, Prosperity Place was designed to enhance the Sandwich community with an attraction that not only tells the story of how Olde Sandwich Towne, and later the city of Windsor, grew out of marine trade and commerce; but also creates a safe, inviting location as a community gathering place. The story of the area's marine history is told through murals and storyboards.
The space was dedicated during an event Thursday morning, featuring a town crier and elders from the Walpole First Nation performing a smudging ceremony
Port Windsor CEO Steve Salmons said much history is being retold at the location.
"For more than 10,000 years, the First Nations of what is now Canada and the U.S. gathered at this location to trade agriculture and wares with each other," said Salmons in the release. "In 1701, the first French explorers immediately began trade for food and animal pelts with the indigenous peoples that began a 300- year story of trade and export from what is now Port Windsor."
The year 1701 is the founding of Detroit by the French.
The project was made possible in part by an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant through the Sandwich Teen Action Group, a community partner of the port authority.
Prosperity Place, and Port Windsor, are located on Sandwich Street near Mill Street in Olde Sandwich Towne.
