The downtown area is bisected by Main Street, running from north to south, and Manitoba Street, the east-west axis, which is adjacent to the railway line and the Moose Jaw river. The central area is for the moment at least, dispiriting, though a string of murals of early pioneer days, concentrated along 1st Avenue NW between Manitoba and Hochelaga streets, do their best to cheer things up. That apart, some of the streets look like they haven't changed much since the 1920s, the wide treeless avenues framed by solemn brick warehouses and hotels and porticoed banks. One block north of Manitoba, the best example is River Street , whose rough-and-ready Royal and Brunswick hotels were once favourite haunts of the gangsters - the street is earmarked for redevelopment in the near future as a cobbled, partly pedestrian street with an amphitheatre for shows.

A network of tunnels runs underneath River Street from the basements of the old buildings. No-one knows who built the tunnels, or why. What is known is that they were extended and used in the early 1900s by Chinese railway workers and their families hoping to escape the $500 'head-tax', a measure designed to force them to return to famine-stricken China after the completion of their work on the railway. Later, during Prohibition, Chicago gangsters used the tunnels to negotiate their deals for Canada's liquor supplies and to hide out when things got too 'hot' in Chicago. For a taste of early Moose Jaw history, the city has three Tunnels of Moose Jaw tours (daily: 10am-8pm, every 20min; 45min; one tour $11, combination ticket $18); the Chicago Connection , a light-hearted look at the capers of Al Capone's men in the tunnels, complete with a speakeasy, police bust and an actor playing the particularly slimy Chief of Police; the more serious Passage to Fortune , which tells the horrific story of the Chinese immigrants with re-creations of a Chinese laundry, sweatshops, a herbalist and an opium den; and the Bootleggers Run , a comic look at the lives of local bootleggers that features the old train station, now, ironically, a massive liquor store. Costumed guides ham it up, helped by state-of-the-art animatronics - moving, talking mannequins - and old movies through the network of narrow tunnels beneath Main Street. Tours begin at Tunnel Central, 16 Main St North, in a reception area with a beautiful copper ceiling and walls adorned with local photos from the early decades of the twentieth century.

A replica of one of Moose Jaw's original electric trams, the Moose Jaw Trolley travels the local sights with a guide who dwells on the town's shady past (May-Sept, 3 daily; Oct-Dec Thurs-Sat 2 daily; 1hr 15min; $8); it leaves from opposite Temple Gardens and from the Heritage Inn on Main Street. You can also ride the trolley without a guide (May-Dec Thurs-Sat 11am-3pm; $2) to Moose Jaw's branch of the Western Development Museum (Jan-March daily except Mon 9am-6pm; April-Dec daily 9am-6pm; $6), about 2km from the centre, beside the Trans-Canada as it loops around the northern edge of town. Divided into sections covering air, land, water and rail transport, the museum exhibits include a replica of a steamship, several Canadian Pacific railway coaches, a number of fragile old planes, and a 1934 Buick car converted to carry the chief superintendent up and down the rail line.

Moose Jaw is also home to the precision-flying team the Snowbirds who zoom across the huge prairie skies at the Saskatchewan Airshow in July ($10).