River Métis, became a municipality in 1882, when the Canadian Pacific Railway built a line crossing Dead Horse Creek. Named after Alvey Morden, on whose family’s land the community was established, it became a town in 1903 and a city in 2012. MODERN MORDEN Today, Morden is a thriving small metropolis with a diverse economy based on agriculture, manufacturing, and government services, including both provincial and federal offices. It is perhaps best known, though, as the home of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, which was founded in 1971. The Centre houses Canada’s largest collection of marine reptile fossils, left behind when the glacial Lake Agassiz’s waters fully drained, and uncovered during the mining of its reserves of bentonite, a highly absorbent, viscous, plastic clay used in a variety of industries and applications as a binding, sealing, absorbing, and lubricating agent. Chief among the collection, which is located in the Access Events Center, an all-season recreation facility that serves as Morden’s social, sports, educational, and community hub, is Bruce, the largest (43-foot long), publicly exhibited mosasaur in the world, who lived some 80 million years ago.The Fossil Discovery Centre offers school programs, guided tours, summer day camps, paleo tours, and fossil dig programs. It also hosts scientists and researchers from the province and beyond in the fields of paleontology, cartography, and geology. Morden is also known for its Corn and Apple Festival, a three-day event begun in 1967 that celebrates two of its local agricultural products that thrive in the area’s long growing season.The festival, which takes place in Morden’s quaint and historic downtown, attracts up to 80,000 visitors to the city every year. Other notable attractions in Morden include the Morden Research and Development Centre, one of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s network of 20 national research and development centres; the Minnewasta Golf & Country Club, located on the edge of the beautiful Lake Minnewasta with its sandy beach, hiking trails and boat launch; the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in the Access Events Center; the Kenmore Theatre, home to film, dance, and live 257 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 11 MORDEN, MB
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