Monday 1st May – Moose Jaw and Al Capone

This was totally on a recommendation.  Again, from our Canadian acquaintance Lehn who we met in Cummins in the US, who started telling us about this place called Moose Jaw where there is a maze of underground tunnels that were used by bootleggers to smuggle alcohol during the US alcohol prohibition era.  It sounded random and the reviews on Trip Advisor seemed to agree it was a winner so we were booked on the 230pm ‘Chicago connections’ tour today.

One and a half hours later we found the attraction and, bless them in Moose Jaw, if you’re visiting from out of Province, you don’t even have to pay for parking.  Result.  A group of eleven of us were led across the street where we met our first actor, Fanny, who owned a club in the town back in the 1920s and warned us about the dangers of being bootleggers.  Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs within the attraction itself, but imagine a maze of rooms with a number of fakeys and numerous secret doors and you’re half way there.  The actors also enjoyed trying to frighten us punters with random surprises and loud noises along the way.  Fanny’s acting was somewhat wooden to be honest, but then we met Gus, with his hard-to understand New York/Chicago gangster drawl and cliched catchphrases he got us to join in with, like ‘forget about it’ and ‘capiche’! It was a bit of good fun, but so far as actually learning about the link between Al Capone and Moose Jaw, we learnt more reading information boards in the entrance hall before and after the tour.   

Basically, when prohibition meant that the USA was ‘dry’ old Scarface saw this as an opportunity to make more money and expand his empire. He ran smuggling rings to get alcohol from Moose Jaw to Chicago, down the Soo Line railroad, in particular running his favourite tipple - whisky. The law enforcement of Moose Jaw was corrupt and on the take from Capone, so gladly turned a blind eye.  Moose Jaw was nicknamed ‘Little Chicago’ and Main and River Street became known as the centre of all illegal activity in the town.  It seems that Moose Javians (correct terminology I think you’ll find) are proud of this link and why wouldn’t they be?  Without Capone there would be very little cause for tourists to stop here at all!

Little Chicago on the corner of River Street

Not a great hideaway with his name emblazoned all over it... but I'm guessing the signs are more recent.

Following the tour, we wandered up main street for a bit and made an enquiry at Velvet hairdressers to see if they had time to give me a cut.  Yes, but in 40 minutes time, came the answer.  Dropping into a gift shop we found the perfect way to kill 40 minutes – one of those fancy dress period photo opportunities!  It had to follow the theme of the day – I became a flapper and Simon a pin-striped Tommy-gun toting gangster:

Plus the store had an awesome Tommy-gun shot glass to add to our collection.  I got my badly-needed haircut and we continued east along Highway 1 to Regina, with Canada’s cheapest gas so far and an RV-friendly Walmart to stop at for a badly needed free night.