This is Mac The Moose. He stands guard on the outskirts of Moose Jaw in the parking lot to the Tourism Information Centre. When we got to Moose Jaw, our first stop was at the Tourist Information Centre. As visitors to Moose Jaw we were given a parking pass that entitled us to park worry free anywhere in town for the day–no parking tickets would be issued if we displayed our parking pass.
We headed out from the Information center armed with details of what was available to see in town for the day.
The first stop was the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. This is a picture of the sign across the street from the entrance to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. This is intended to be a replica of the car owned by Al Capone.

Moose Jaw’s downtown was plagued by a number of fires in the 1800’s. In 1892, a bylaw was passed by city council which made it mandatory for buildings in the downtown core to be constructed of brick and that these buildings be heated with boilers. Because boiler men needed to have their fireman’s papers, there was a shortage of qualified people. Businesses would band together to hire one man to look after several boilers. This required their buildings to be interconnected. So that is what the tunnels first started out as–interconnecting spaces beneath the buildings.

The existence of the tunnels below the city of Moose Jaw were denied by the founding fathers of Moose Jaw for 75 years. Then one day, a heavy truck collapsed the pavement on Main Street and disappeared into a large hole. The underground maze of tunnels and the stories of a Chinese ghetto and Al Capone’s gangsters were out.

The tours feature guides in character and the tourists taking the tour take part in the role play to maximize the experience as you step back in time.

The first tour we took was called, Passage To Fortune . When the CPR was stretching steel to the Pacific, dollar-a-day Chinese labourers were welcome. In the late 1800’s, when construction of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) ended, a few determined Chinese moved to Moose Jaw hoping to find job opportunities. Ottawa imposed a head tax which rose to $500 per Chinese immigrant by 1903. Unable to pay the head tax, the Chinese went underground, using the tunnels under buildings in downtown Moose Jaw and they did work for the above ground cafes and laundries. They raised children in the rat-infested darkness. During the tour, you assume the role of the Chinese immigrant to Canada.

The second tour we took was called, The Chicago Connection . This tour reveals how Moose Jaw earned the nickname, “Little Chicago”. In the 1920’s, American gangsters would ride the “Soo Line” – the CPR – north to Moose Jaw to beat the “heat” of Prohibition. Saskatchewan ended Prohibition in 1924, nine years before the Americans did. Al Capone’s boys found the tunnels the perfect base to supply illegal liquor to the United States via the Soo Line. On this tour, big Al’s people are in Moose Jaw to buy some illegal booze ­- from you, the bootlegger.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the inside of the tunnels as picture taking was forbidden.

This is another old car atop a building depicting one of the many murals of Moose Jaw that adorne the exterior of the buildings in the downtown core.

This is the outside of the Yvette Moore Gallery. Yvette Moore is a Saskatchewan artist born in Radville, Saskatchewan. Yvette’s art captures the stories of the Prairies and she is a favorite artist of both my mother and I. What a treat to see all of Yvette’s art in one place. http://www.yvettemoore.com/index.shtml
Of course no trip would be complete without visiting the local quilt shops. The first stop was The Quilt Patch, which was featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine in 2006. http://www.thequiltpatch.ca/
I was given permission to take a couple of shots of the inside of the shop. This place was packed with inspiration!
I couldn’t resist this cute quilt: Eat Cake!
A couple of blocks away was Quilters Haven, another jam packed quilt shop. http://www.quiltershaveninc.ca/?

On September 4, we decided on another day trip–this time we headed to Moose Jaw. Along the way, we pass through the small town of Roleau.

Roleau, AKA Dog River, is where they film the TV comedy series, Corner Gas.
http://www.cornergas.com/home/

The series’ production team built a full-size mock gas station and coffee shop at the western entrance of the town for filming, causing confusion among visitors thinking Corner Gas and The Ruby were real establishments. The town’s grain elevator was also repainted with the name “Dog River”.

These are pictures of the set. When we stopped to take pictures, one of the production staff told us they were filming downtown on this particular day. We were told that we were welcome to drive over and take a look if we wanted.

This is the “Dog River” elevator that is seen in many of the shots in the series.

This is the view from the gas station and “The Ruby”.
Downtown you can find the grocery store…..

….and the police station.

This is my parents sitting in front of the Police Station and my aunt to the right of the building.
We were lucky enough to catch some of the cast coming out of the “Town Hall” as we drove down the street.
Eric Peterson who plays, Oscar Leroy in the series spotted us and came on over to talk. “Oscar” spied my dad in the backseat and commented that it looked like we had our own “Oscar”. LOL (You can see Brent Butt (in the black jacket holding a rolled up script) who plays Brent Herbert Leroy and Janet Wright (in the red jacket) who plays Emma Leroy in this picture with their backs turned to us.)
This is “Oscar” having a conversation with my Mom and Aunt who were in the front seat.

The highlight of the day was when Oscar introduced himself to us and reached in and shook my Dad’s hand. Eric Peterson is a native of Saskatchewan, born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. After a small conversation with “Oscar”, we headed on to Moose Jaw. “Oscar” was always my Dad and I’s favorite actor on the show. Because of this small act of kindness, he remains our favorite actor on this show!

They are filiming the last season of Corner Gas this fall. We will be sad to see the end of this show.

The same day we visited Redvers, we also visited Carlyle. These two communities are just a short drive apart. Carlyle boasts a population of about 1,260 and is my mother’s home town.

This is a picture of the house that my grandparents used to own (my mother’s parents). Of course this house looks nothing like it did when I was young and used to go there to visit my grandparents. In fact, when I recently showed this picture to my brother, he did not recognize the house at all. This is a picture of what we knew to be the “garden” that was next to the house. The trees have grown huge and you can’t see where the flower and vegetable garden used to be behind the fence.
I went looking for old pictures of the house as I remembered it and came across this picture of my grandparents. I am unsure of the year this picture was taken, but I am sure either my aunt will know or my dad will recognize the year of the car in the background and be able to help with a time period as well.

I did find this picture of the house as I remember it. This picture was taken in the early 60’s. There was still a garage attached to the house at this point.
And while I was hunting for pictures of the house, I came across some others taken in front of the house. This is a picture of me in front of my grandparent’s house.
This is my brother and I. This picture was taken from the “garden” side of the house. You can see the roof of the house in the background.
This picture is my parents, my brother and I. Aren’t we a cute family?

A visit back to the places I grew up would not be complete without a trip to the graveyards. This is the cemetery at Carlyle. Many of my relatives from my mother’s side rest here including my grandparents pictured above. I have always had an interest in my family’s history and family tree. A visit to the graveyard when I was young with my grandparents always stimulated stories of my ancestors.

This picture was taken outside the cemetery. You can see the fence of the graveyard to the right in the picture. This picture is very representative of the many prairie grid roads in the area–gravel only. Only major highways are paved.
This picture was taken from my great uncle’s quarter section of land. If you look very close, you can see the town of Carlyle on the horizon. This is the only active oil well left that is associated with the land that used to belong to my grandfather. This pump jack is located adjacent to the land that used to belong to my grandfather. This is a horizontal well that is extracting oil from under the land that used to belong to my grandfather. Oil is booming right now in Saskatchewan. Carlyle and the surrounding area is part of the Bakken Formation. The Bakken Formation includes North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. Oil was originally discovered in this area in the early 1950’s. However, the oil is beneath the shale, not in it and it has been very difficult in the past to extract the oil. However, technology is changing and drilling for the oil seems to have taken off in the area recently. Saskatchewan has now found itself in the middle of an oil boom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_Formation

On September 3, we headed out for a day trip to Redvers, Saskatchewan. See: http://www.townofredvers.org/ and http://www.creda.sk.ca/redvers/index.htm Redvers is a small town of 917 people located in the southeast corner of Saskatchewan, 19 km west of the Manitoba border and 50 km north of the US border. Redvers is where my Dad was born and grew up.

This is the last grain elevator left standing in Redvers. It is currently in use but it is debatable how much longer that will be. The old wooden grain elevators of the past (like this one) have been torn down or sold in many Saskatchewan towns and have been replaced by larger concrete facilities referred to as grain terminals. All small towns in Saskatchewan used to be marked by their grain elevators sporting the name of the town. This is the farm that my Dad was born on and grew up on. This farm is still owned by a member of the family.

This farm is one of the Century Farms in Saskatchewan. A Century Farm Award is given to a family if members of the same family have farmed or ranched on the land continuously for 100 years or more. See: http://www.isc.ca/default.aspx?DN=1575,18,10,1,Documents
This is my Dad standing next to the sign that my cousin had erected to commemorate the farm being owned for 100 continuous years by members of my Dad’s family in 2001.
This is the Redvers Moccasin factory.
I wanted to bring this little Cinderella machine from, Naumann Sewing Machines, home with me.

In this building, moccasins hand made by a husband and wife team are sold in stores all across Canada. Of course we all purchased a pair of leather moccasins to take home with us as a souvenir.

These two pictures are taken in downtown Redvers. These scenes are pretty typical of “Small town Saskatchewan”. Things move at a less hurried pace than I am used to in B.C.
This is my cousin, Wanda. The farmer’s bad luck harvest wise was my good luck. Because it had been raining off and on for a few days, Wanda and her husband were forced to take a break from the harvesting. This break allowed Wanda to come into Redvers to meet with me and have a visit. We haven’t seen each other for years.
This is my Dad, my Mom, my cousin, Wanda, me, and my Aunt Avaline standing in front of my Aunt’s house.