A city of south-central Saskatchewan, Canada, west of Regina. Founded in 1882, it is a processing center for an agricultural and oil-producing area. Population: 32,100.
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Moose Jaw (mūs) ![]() |
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| Moose Jaw | |
|---|---|
| Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan | |
| Location of Moose Jaw | |
| Coordinates: 50°24′N 105°33′W / 50.4°N 105.55°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Saskatchewan |
| Area | |
| - Total | 46.82 km2 (18.1 sq mi) |
| Population (2006) | |
| - Total | 32,132 |
| - Density | 686.3/km2 (1,777.5/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| Website | City of Moose Jaw Website |
Moose Jaw is a city in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada on the Moose Jaw River. It is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway. 71 km (45 miles) west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians. It is best known as a retirement and tourist city that serves as a hub to the hundreds of small towns and farms in the surrounding region of Saskatchewan.[citation needed]
Tourist attractions include the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, The Moose Jaw Trolley, the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, Captain Jacks River Boat Tour, The Western Development Museum, Casino Moose Jaw, the Murals of Moose Jaw, and Hopkins Dining Parlour. Moose Jaw is also home to the Canadian Snowbirds based at CFB Mooose Jaw. CFB Moose Jaw is located south of Moose Jaw in Bushell Park.
There are many parks in Moose Jaw. Crescent Park is located downtown and features a creek, swans, and an amphitheatre. "Wakamow Park" follows the Moose Jaw River and features both natural and maintained areas. There are many trails throughout the park for hiking and biking. There are also RV camping and canoe rentals in the park.
The Warriors are Moose Jaw's hockey team which plays in the Western Hockey League at the Moose Jaw Civic Centre.
Local institutions include five high schools, 15 elementary schools, and the 57-member Moose Jaw Fire Department. Moose Jaw is also home to the Palliser Campus of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST).
The largest lake in southern Saskatchewan, Old Wives Lake, is located 19 miles southwest of the city.
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Near the northern terminus of Sk Hwy 39 is Moose Jaw, also called "Little Chicago". Moose Jaw, is a city of 32,132 at the Sk Hwy 1 Trans–Canada and Sk Hwy 2 intersection.[1] Capone's Car, Moose Family and Mac the Moose are all large roadside attractions of Moose Jaw.[2] Moose Jaw Trolley Company (1912) is still an operating electric cable trolleys offering tours of Moose Jaw. Temple Garden's Mineral Spa,[3] Tunnels of Moose Jaw,[4] and History of Transportation Western Development Museum.[5] are major sites of interest of this city.[6] The juncture of Moose Jaw and Thunder Creek produced the best source of water for steam engines, and Moose Jaw became the CPR divisional point.[7] AgPro Inland Grain Terminal operated by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.[8] These large capacity concrete grain terminals are replacing the smaller grain elevators which were numerous along the highway, sentinels of most communities along the route. Improved technology for harvest, transport and road construction have made the large inland terminals more viable economically.[9] The rural governing body around Moose Jaw is Moose Jaw No. 161 which serves 1,228 residents (2006 census) which includes the Moose Jaw, Canadian Forces Base. Meat-processing plants, salt, potash, urea fertilizer, anhydrous ammonia and ethanol producers abound in this area with easy transport access to the Trans–Canada Highway.[1][10]
In 1917, a group of local residents banded together and purchased enough automobile parts to build 25 cars. These were to be manufactured under the name Moose Jaw Standard. Each member of the group was able to receive a car, but no further buyers were found, and production did not continue.[11]
The area surrounding Moose Jaw has a high number of cloudless days, making it a good site for training pilots. The Royal Canadian Air Force under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan established RCAF Station Moose Jaw in 1940. Following the war, the RCAF remained in the community and used the facility for training pilots through the Cold War. The facility changed its name to CFB Moose Jaw in 1968 and it is currently Canada's primary military flight training centre and the home of 431 (Air Demonstration) Squadron (aka the "Snowbirds").
CFB Moose Jaw's primary lodger unit is "15 Wing." In the Canadian Forces Air Command, the lodger unit is frequently referred to as 15 Wing Moose Jaw. The base usually holds an Armed Forces Day each year.
| Weather data for Moose Jaw | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 25.4 (78) |
16.9 (62) |
23.3 (74) |
32.9 (91) |
38.6 (101) |
41.2 (106) |
38.9 (102) |
41.7 (107) |
37.2 (99) |
32.8 (91) |
22.2 (72) |
12 (54) |
|
| Average high °C (°F) | -8.3 (17) |
-4.8 (23) |
2 (36) |
11.6 (53) |
19.1 (66) |
24 (75) |
26.3 (79) |
25.9 (79) |
19.2 (67) |
12.2 (54) |
1 (34) |
-6.2 (21) |
10.2 (50) |
| Average low °C (°F) | -19.1 (-2) |
-15.1 (5) |
-8.8 (16) |
-1.7 (29) |
5 (41) |
10.2 (50) |
12.3 (54) |
11.2 (52) |
5.5 (42) |
-0.6 (31) |
-9.3 (15) |
-16.6 (2) |
-2.2 (28) |
| Record low °C (°F) | -45.6 (-50) |
-40.5 (-41) |
-38.9 (-38) |
-26.1 (-15) |
-11.1 (12) |
-2.8 (27) |
1.1 (34) |
-0 (32) |
-12.8 (9) |
-21.1 (-6) |
-32.3 (-26) |
-40.7 (-41) |
|
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 16.6 (0.65) |
12.9 (0.51) |
19.3 (0.76) |
23.2 (0.91) |
48.9 (1.93) |
60.2 (2.37) |
57.3 (2.26) |
39.8 (1.57) |
35.7 (1.41) |
17.6 (0.69) |
15.6 (0.61) |
18.2 (0.72) |
365.1 (14.37) |
| Source: Environment Canada[12] 2009-07-09 | |||||||||||||
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Moose Jaw has had many members of the British Royal Family visit the city. Edward, Prince of Wales, who owned a ranch in Alberta, visited in 1919, 1924, and 1927. Prince George, future king and father of Queen Elizabeth II, paid a visit in 1926. King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (later known as Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother) visited during the Royal tour in 1939. Queen Elizabeth II first visited in 1959, and has come to the city a few times since.
The Earl of Wessex (Prince Edward) became Colonel-in-Chief of the Saskatchewan Dragoons of Moose Jaw on visiting Saskatchewan in 2003, when he congratulated the regiment on its "contribution to Canada's proud tradition of citizen-soldiers in the community." Involved in peacekeeping operations in Cyprus, the Golan Heights, Bosnia and Croatia, the regiment has also provided aid during floods and forest fires in the prairies. The Prince returned to visit his regiment in 2006.
The Earl of Wessex also inaugurated the Queen's Jubilee Rose Garden in Moose Jaw on his visit in 2003. Other Royal connections to the city include King George School and Prince Arthur Community School, both named for members of the Royal Family. Before it shut down and became Cornerstone Christian School, the South Hill school was formerly named King Edward Elementary School.
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009) |
Like most Canadian cities, hockey has played a large part of Moose Jaw's sporting culture, yet baseball has also been an important part of Moose Jaw since its first days as the city won territorial championships in 1895. Most recently, the 2004 Junior All-Star team (age 13/14) won the Canadian Championship and became the first team from Saskatchewan to win a game at the Little League World Series.
Notable sports teams of Moose Jaw include:
Defunct sports teams
Although Moose Jaw is known as the 'Friendly City', it is not well known that the city was the centre of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Saskatchewan. The first KKK rally in Moose Jaw was held on June 7, 1927, with over four hundred members attending. The second (and last) Klan rally was held on 26 October, 1927. It was held only ten days after the KKK organizer Hugh Emmons's arrest. Over one thousand people attended. It was the last rally, but in 1929 the KKK sponsored a Labour Day picnic in River Park. There were racist speeches and a cross burning, but the focus of the day was on sporting events.[13][14]
Moose Jaw is home to one of four Western Development Museums which specializes in history of transportation and a Snowbirds gallery.[55] The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum is located south of Moose Jaw on Sk Hwy 2. The car club at Moose Jaw agreed to the restoration of Tom Sukanen's ship at their museum site. Tom Sukanen was a Finnish homesteader who settled near Birsay who hoped to travel home again on his ship he assembled near the South Saskatchewan River. The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum features a typical village replete with pioneer artifacts and tractors, cars and trucks restored by the Moose Jaw car club, and is run by volunteers.[56]
In the early 1900s, most of the larger buildings in Moose Jaw were heated by steam. The engineers who maintained the coal-fired boilers in the basements arranged for the creation of an elaborate network of tunnels linking them so that they could move themselves and their equipment from building to building without facing the harsh winter weather.
At about the same time, numerous Chinese immigrants who arrived in Moose Jaw to work for what were, by Canadian standards, very low wages, adopted the tunnel system as living quarters and workplaces which were both inexpensive and sheltered from a sometimes hostile populace.
During Prohibition Moose Jaw became a center for distribution of bootleg liquor, both domestically and to the United States via the Soo Line Railroad to Chicago, earning the town the nickname "Little Chicago". Illegal enterprises such as speakeasies, casinos, and brothels sprang up within the concealment and shelter of the tunnels. Moose Jaw folklore states that Al Capone himself was resident for some time, to oversee operations and/or to hide out from law enforcement.
Over time, the tunnels fell into disuse and many were filled in or blocked off by new construction. However, an elaborate tourist attraction featuring live actors and animatronics has been created within what remains of the system, featuring tours illustrating the stories of the Chinese immigrants and bootlegging, and attracting over 100,000 visitors per year.[57][58]
The 1977 movie Slapshot introduced "Chiefs defenseman Billy Charlesbois who hails from...if I can read the card correctly...Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan" as the player is walking onto the catwalk during a team fashion show.
In the first season of the show Corner Gas, in order to show how fake the stories are in Dog River's local newspaper, they showed a paper where the headline read "Moose Jaw Gets NBA Franchise"[61]
Moose Jaw's population grew to 32,132 according to the 2006 census, which showed virtually no increase from 2001. [62]According to the Canada 2006 Census:[63]
| Population: | 32,132 (0.0% from 2001) |
| Land area: | 46.82 km2 (18.08 sq mi) |
| Population density: | 686.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,778 /sq mi) |
| Median age: | 41.6 (males: 39.9, females: 43.1) |
| Total private dwellings: | 14,691 |
| Dwellings occupied by permanent residents: | 13,685 |
| Median household income: | $37,647 |
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