Moose Jaw......

Moose Jaw is a small city in southern Saskatchewan. I took Steve on a day trip here to see the large statues and to catch a glimpse of Canada's not-so-shiny past.

This is Mac the Moose. Mac the Moose is the largest moose in Saskatchewan. There is Steve below him giving the moose call.



In Moose Jaw there are tunnels underneath the town that use to be used for slavery (or just a notch above) and also to bootleg alcohol state side.
Moose Jaw didn't know about the tunnels until about 30-40 years ago. A man had parked his trunk on the street to run into a shop........and when he came out it wasn't there anymore!! His truck had found a weak spot in the road and had fallen through into one of these tunnels!!
After that, the city explored and started doing research. They have turned Moose Jaw into a tourist city! Not only are the two tours great, they also have some of the best well known spa's in western Canada.

One of the tours deals with the Chinese immigrants. The Chinese people built Canada's railway (coast to coast). But when it was finished Canada didn't want the Chinese people in Canada anymore. So the government put a very large head tax on anyone coming over from Asia to try and discourage people not to come. But they did anyway because they felt that they would eventually be able to provide a better life for their families still in Asia.

A broker would lend them the money for the passage to Canada in Asia, but when they got to Canada their would be people there asking for the money that was owed. None of them could pay up, so these brokers would find them work in a very low, menial job. Think sweat shop and you have the right idea. The working conditions were horrible and how these men were treated is even worse. Most of them never made enough money to send for their family, and in many cases they never saw their family again. The language and racial barrier was to extreme for many of these people to succeed. The ones who did, their descendants are proud Canadians today.
The other tunnel tour that is offered is the Capone tour. Allegedly Al Capone (big time Chicago gangster in the 1920's) would come to Moose Jaw to get away from the "heat", and also to run liquor to the needy Americans that craved it. This was during Prohibition, where the government chose to make alcohol illegal. People like Capone made a lot of money from this decision.
All around the town are murals about the tunnels or about prairie lifestyle.

Another thing that people in North America do well is BIG. We like things big. Personally I think we like the attention. If you go into American or Canada you will see BIG things. Like Mac the Moose, or the worlds biggest coffee pot and cup.......grasshopper, thresher, Ukrainian Easter egg....and the list goes on and on.