once in awhile as we travel, I deliberately try to pick a small
town with nothing to do so that we can catch up on what we have
back-logged to be written. Such was the case (I thought) with
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I saw something in a brochure about the
tunnels of Moose Jaw but thought little more about it, until we
had gotten settled in our campsite. The next day after we got in,
we had decided we would take the local trolley around town to see
what was available. Unfortunately it started to rain, so we
decided we would check out "The Tunnels of Moose Jaw".
What I had pictured as simply a walking tour of some holes in the
ground turned out to be some of the most delightful couple of
hours we had spent in a long time. We found out that originally
all of the downtown buildings in Moose Jaw had been heated by
steam heat, which was controlled by coal fueled boilers located
underground. The engineers that maintained the boilers decided
that it would be much easier for them to check on the boilers if
they didn't have to return to the surface when they went from one
to the other. So, they were instrumental in getting tunnels built
from boiler to boiler. As a result the town became crisscrossed
with a series of underground tunnels. But this was just the
beginning. Later, as a great influx of Chinese immigrants began
coming to Canada (some legal 
and
some illegal) the money-lenders sold their services to local
entrepreneurs in order for them to pay off the money loaned them
to make the passage to Canada to "make their fortunes".
There was strong public sentiment against these
"foreigners" and the businessmen found out that if they
were able to keep them out of sight, the public and the
authorities didn't seem to care. So what they did was enlarge the
tunnels that were already there from the steam boilers. As a
result the immigrants lived in terrible conditions. Because of
the fact that the fare to North America was so high, they were
usually only able to afford fare for themselves, promising their
families left in China that they would send for them as soon as
they could. Unfortunately due to the poor conditions, and even
poorer pay, for some of these men, as soon as they could became
many, many years. With some of them never able to send for their
families. The men usually worked in laundries, or burlap
factories, or if they were lucky for some enterprising Chinese
who had been fortunate to open his own restaurant and would
employ them. If they worked in the laundry, their days consisted
of 12-16 hrs of work, laundering clothes. Their sleeping quarters
were adjacent to the laundry, all underground, as well as their
eating and living quarters. Some of these men might spend weeks,
never getting to the surface to see the sunshine. However, they
worked and saved every penny they could to 
realize
a dream. The first tour (there are two) was called "Passage to Fortune". We were led underground by a young lady, named Delise, dressed in a period costume and trying to relay to the group, how very difficult the lives of the Chinese immigrants were back in the 1880s. We were then turned over to Dawson. He represented one of the engineers who would have maintained the boilers, as well as working for the local laundry boss. He really got into his role and yelled at our group as though we were a group of incoming "coolies" as the Chinese were called in that time. While I'm sure it would be impossible to understand how this men must have felt being in a strange country, barely able to speak the language, it was intimidating none the less. As we were taken to Mr. Burroughs, the laundry owner, (who was by the way an excellent example of animatronics) we were again berated and threatened. After we left there we were taken to the laundry area. As we went through one of the tunnels we noticed what appeared to be fog. Our guide explained to us that it was a special effect emulating fog and was done by using gelatin to make steam. It was very eerie,but portrayed how the tunnels might have looked with the steam and/fog rolling through. Then we arrived at the laundry area. It was a very small area, consisting of wash tubs, sewing machines, and ironing boards. In an adjacent area, only slightly partitioned off from the work area, was the cooking, eating, and sleeping area for the workers. In another room, there were tables that they could use for past times; such as gambling.
Mai-Jong and
Fan-tan were favorites of the time. Unfortunately one thing that
the immigrants brought with them from China was an addiction to
Opium, which they used to help them deal with the loneliness, and
physical and mental pains they had. The wages for the Chinese
workers were sometimes as low as 50¢ a day, some of which was
paid back to the employer for their room and board. Next we were
shown into the burlap factory. The workers who worked very hard
at the laundry could hope to move up to the burlap factory. Here,
they were paid better and the work was not as difficult. Our
guide then explained that there were so many Chinese immigrants
to Canada that the government finally put a tax on Chinese
immigrants. From 1885 to 1923 the Canadian Government made over
$23 million on the immigration tax. After everyone in our group
made their appearance before the immigrations officer and paid
him his tax, we were moved along the tunnels to the exit and
found ourselves back in the lobby where we had begun. To start our next tour "The Chicago Connection" we had go across the street and up to the second floor of a building
which currently houses an art
gallery. When the time came for our tour a young lady dressed in
the attire of a flapper of the Al Capone era came out and
addressed the crowd. She told us her name was "Fanny"
and that she was taking us into her place (a speakeasy) since we
were customers who had come to buy alcohol from "Big
Al" (meaning Al Capone). It seems that when things got too
hot in Chicago during the prohibition days, Al Capone would go up
to Moose Jaw and lay low for awhile. As we entered the speakeasy
there was a animatronic piano player and bartender. As Fanny was
showing us around, she took us into the next room which was
"Big Al's" when he was in town. While we were in his
rooms, the phone rang and Fanny got real excited. She said that
"Big Al" was on his way and we had to get out of there
fast. She then opened a secret panel which led to some stairs
leading downwards. When we got to the bottom of the stairs we
were to knock on the door and give a secret code. By this time
the group we were in started to get into the acting. The first
person down knocked on the door and it came open so fast, one
poor lady let out a shriek. The guy opened the door holding a
tommy-gun. Walked up and down and looked us over. He made some
remark to almost every person and pretty soon some (including
myself) were making comments back. Pretty soon it was really
starting to rock and roll with the people in the group really
hasseling the actors. Well, our first guy decided it was 
getting "too
hot" for him there and passed us on to the fellow who brewed
the alcohol. He started giving us his hints and tips for
"aging" the alcohol quickly. Then he passed us along to
a very nervous-type bookkeeper. The actor was really good. I
thought the poor man was going to have a heart attack right there
on the spot. Finally he decided he'd better take all the
paperwork and make his getaway, but he had to take us along with
him so there were no witnesses. At least he didn't decide to wipe
us all out. As we were led this way and that through the tunnels
we found ourselves coming out, once again, to the lobby of the
original building. The two tours were really a lot of fun as well
as informative. If you're ever in the area be sure and stop in
and visit "The Tunnels of MooseJaw." If you would like
more information on them, visit their website at: http://www.TunnelsOfMooseJaw.com.