The Prairie's Bootlegger Past

I was checking out things to do on our weekend at Temple Gardens and came across the Moose Jaw tunnels. Moose Jaw was one of Al Capone's outposts in his bootlegging operations in the 20's

It reminded me of family stories and rural (not urban) legends about booze smuggling on the prairies. Both my Mom and my mother in law have stories of big black Cadillac's full of Americans stopping to see friends from the old days. In Moms case "Old Man" Morris, her childhood neighbour near Elgin school, was visited by these friends in the late 30's and 40's. My mother in law's boss , a store owner in Alexander, got a couple of visits in the 50's from some American friend's from the "war" . She said they looked like gangsters.

Two more, around here they talk about Fleming bar being a stop off point for bootleggers on the way from Moose Jaw to Chicago. It is a big two story building and nice big bar in a tiny town(?) Likely it was bigger town in the past, but? Last one, in our town there's a tunnel from the train station, to the old hotel, to a local building (now a jeweller) down town. The tunnel crosses under two streets and is big enough to stand in. Now I know they used this type of thing for utilities and such but this is kind of odd. The local legend is the booze was dropped off by train, stored in the hotel, and shipped from the downtown building. And I've heard it in reverse.

Kind of cool don't you think. Likely a mix of fact and fiction, but still an interesting part of prairie culture
http://www.tunnelsofmoosejaw.com/default.asp The tunnel link. Enjoy!