A decade after it was proposed, and much reduced in size, a Niagara escarpment interpretative centre appears to have finally found a home. The "Giant's Rib Discovery Centre" is moving into the existing Dundas Valley Trail Centre and expects to make the old railway station its permanent location.

The idea for the interpretative centre was unveiled in March 1994 by Ontario premier Bob Rae as part of David Crombie's proposals to avoid an expressway in the Red Hill Valley . Crombie envisioned a $6-million facility in the valley that would focus "on the historical relationship between community, ecology and economy" and make Hamilton the provincial gateway for escarpment tourists.

Crombie's alternative road concept was rejected by city politicians, but the idea for the interpretative centre was not abandoned. When the city refused to allow it to be located near Red Hill, the Giant's Rib name was adopted and a location was chosen on the face of the escarpment just east of Clappison's Corners.

Escarpment protection rules and a lack of funding have made that site unfeasible, and led the group to swing a partnership with the Hamilton Conservation Authority for use of the Dundas Valley facility.

Last week, Fred Eisenberger, the president of the centre and a former city councillor, convinced the board of the Hamilton Future Fund to release additional monies earmarked for Giant's Rib, so that the centre could move into the old railway station.

The Future Fund had previously given $50,000 to the centre to help it search for other funding and a permanent location, and had set aside another $200,000. Eisenberger told the board that these monies would allow the centre to become self-sufficient.