Moose Jaw, the "friendly city", is in the heart of the grain country, at the confluence of the Moose Jaw River and Thunder Creek. It is an industrial town and has a turbulent history; there are at least three versions of how it got its name, the most popular being that it comes from "moosegaw", the
Cree word for warm breezes, since it is warmer here in winter than elsewhere in the vicinity.
Moose Jaw has Canada's busiest airfield (at the Canadian military base, south of the town) which is also home to the famous Snowbirds aerial acrobatic group.
In 1881 two land surveyors from Canadian Pacific decided that the point where the railroads met should be where the Moose Jaw River met Thunder Creek. The fertile soil soon meant that people settled here permanently once the railroad was finished and Moose Jaw became a town in 1903 after it had grown to be an major junction. It also became important for its grainstores and meat-processing.
In the Roaring Twenties Moose Jaw, at the end of a direct line from Chicago, was from where Al Capone and his fellow gangsters ran their liquor empires during Prohibition. A few of the old buildings are still to be seen on Main Street.
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