Moose Jaw is a city of 34 236 (as of the 2001 Canadian national census) located in southern Saskatchewan, about forty minutes' drive west of the provincial capital, Regina, on the Trans Canada Highway. Situated on the plateau that makes up most of the western Canadian prairies and where Moose Jaw Creek and Thunder Creek meet, it has an elevation of between 1778 and 1840 feet above sea level. Residents of Moose Jaw proudly refer to themselves as "Moosejavians".
Contrary to popular belief, the town was named after neither a particular segment of an animal, nor in honour of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's distinctive profile. Instead it comes from a word in the Cree language of the First Nations people indigenous to the area: "moosegaw", which translates to "warm breezes".
Geography
Moose Jaw is located at the eastern edge of a landform called the Mississippi Coteau, which separates the flatness of the Regina Plain to the east from the gently rolling hills and coulees of southern Alberta to the west. It represents what was the bottom of a glacial lake during the last Ice Age; hundreds of sloughs and erratic potholes are the legacy of millions of tonnes of ice and rock that crept forward and then back again, gouging holes into the landscape.
In more practical terms, this means that the highways and side roads here are in unremittingly abysmal condition, uneven where they are mended haphazardly at best, and littered with chunks of asphalt that have broken off from the road surface.
The largest lake in the Moose Jaw area is Lake Diefenbaker, named for the only Canadian Prime Minister to ever have come from Saskatchewan; it is a mostly man-made lake, a reservoir formed by a dam in the South Saskatchewan River.
The Qu'Appelle River Valley and Buffalo Pound Lake are a short drive north of the city, about thirty kilometres away. Buffalo Pound Provincial Park offers numerous outdoor activities and campgrounds, which fact is exploited by the Moose Jaw branch of Tourism Saskatchewan and features prominently in the propaganda leaflets distributed periodically to everyone who lives within driving distance.
South are found the creatively-named Big Muddy Valley and the Badlands, characterised by high plateaus, hoodoos, and hills, more evidence of glaciers passing through. Much like the badlands of southern Alberta, these hills are rife with fossils of ancient marine creatures; it is a popular area for study among oceanographers, despite the incongruity of its location inland.
A lasting effect of the glaciers is the soil here, a mixture of clay loams and silt, and naturally extremely fertile, which combined with a reasonably sufficient amount of precipitation makes the area surrounding Moose Jaw prime farmland for the growing of vegetables, berries, and small fruits, as well as the cereal crops and canola grown elsewhere in Saskatchewan.
Pre-settlement history
When Samuel de Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence River in 1512, he had no idea of the vastness of the territory to which he was laying claim for the French crown. The fur trade expanded westward far before colonists did; the first Europeans to settle in Moose Jaw did so because of its ideal location as a trading camp where goods could be exchanged for furs.
Before the traders came, Moose Jaw had been a winter campsite for both the nomadic Cree and Assiniboine Nations. At "the Turn", now Kingsway municipal park, the river narrowed and the current slowed, which along with the shelter provided by the Coteau made it an ideal resting place. Burial grounds are still occasionally unearthed by accident during construction, despite protective legislation.
As the fur trade expanded following the conquest of New France by Great Britain, Metis buffalo hunters used the traditional encampments for winter cabins, strategically located where the trail from Fort Garry crossed Moose Jaw Creek.
The Canadian Pacific Railway
In summer of 1881, a group of surveyors from the railway company determined that the trading camp at Moose Jaw would be the best place to build a junction; the convergence of Moose Jaw and Thunder Creeks was ideal for a bridge across the river valley, and the rivers themselves would provide ample water supply for steam locomotives.
Surveyors James Ross and Hector Sutherland registered the site as a town with the Dominion Government in 1882. Settlement was slow -- by the end of the first year, the main drag and business sector of the town consisted of only five shabby and windblown tents.
The building of the railway saw exponential population and economic growth. In 1881 the CPR team, made up of over seven thousand men and nearly two thousand teams of horses, set off west from Portage la Prairie, Manitoba; slowly working toward the west, constructing rails as they went, they arrived in Moose Jaw in winter of 1882. Passenger trains began arriving in 1883. National completion of the railway at Craigellachie, just south of Revelstoke, British Columbia, saw a population boom that lasted several years as people from the east migrated west to end up in Moose Jaw.
Post-settlement history
Soldiers stationed in Moose Jaw during the 1885 Northwest Rebellion as well as railway workers served to increase the population and stimulate economic and geographical expansion. In 1891, however, the town saw a major setback: most of the downtown core was destroyed by fire. The rebuilding process was time-consuming; population growth was slow, and it wasn't until 1903 when City status was sought by the leading council and granted by the government.
An odd part of Moose Jaw's history is the city's association with American gangster Al Capone, who is said to have spent time in hiding here. A quick glance at one of the numerous tourist guides to the city will reveal a score of Capone-themed hotels, motor inns, diners, and souvenir shops, most of which undoubtedly thrive on the apocrypha that has developed and exaggerated his involvement with the city's growth.
Underneath the city are a number of tunnels, which were purported to have been used to smuggle illegal alcohol to the United States during the Prohibition era; though their importance is no doubt also exaggerated, they are a surprisingly interesting way to while away a lazy weekday afternoon, mostly for want of anything more stimulating to do while in town. To wander through them on one's own is forbidden, but guided tours are available.
A massive casino facility, themed on the lifestyle of the affluent in the 1920s, is the prime attraction downtown, closely followed by the Moose Jaw Spa, which is alleged to be world-class. Moose Jaw city council would have you believe that these two tourist magnets draw in thousands upon thousands of visitors from out of town annually, though seeing the empty streets on a walk downtown during the height of tourist season would make anyone inclined to doubt.
Moose Jaw is also home to a NATO training base for pilots; the Snowbirds aerial stunt team is based here, and the Moose Jaw International Air Show held each summer features them along with various other aircraft hailing from all over the world. This seems to draw more tourists in a single weekend than do the casino and spa over the entire season.
Next to tourism, industrial production is crucial to Moose Jaw's continued economic survival. North of the city are three facilities: IMC Kalium, which mines potash; The Canadian Salt Company, which separates sodium chloride from Kalium's waste products; and SaskFerco Products, which manufactures nitrogen-based fertilisers.
Every single tourist pamphlet which I have had the good fortune to stumble across mentions a single critical fact: downtown, on weekends, parking is free. Welcome to Moose Jaw, the Friendly City.
Some information here was gleaned from http://www.citymoosejaw.com/tourism/, from which more specific information relating to tourism and accomodations might be acquired. The rest came from tourist pamphlets and circulars collected over the past several months.