MooseJawToday.com reporters Gordon Edgar and Aaron Walker interviewed visitors to Moose Jaw on Main Street to find out their impressions of the Friendly, Notorious City and its attractions. With tourism making up the second-largest chunk of local economy, such impressions matter.
Trevor and Linnaea Lindenbach from St. Brieux, Sask.
"It's like stepping back in time, it's very cool, with all the little shops. It almost feels foreign, like a different country, us being from a small town," said Trevor Lindenbach. Lindenbach and his wife Linnaea celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Moose Jaw on Aug. 1. They are from the town of St. Brieux, SK, pop. 590, and this trip is their first to the Notorious City.
"We were at Temple Gardens, so we are really relaxed right now, and we just finished the Chicago Connection tour at the Tunnels [of Moose Jaw]. It was a very well done, like, mini drama production and also had the feel of a museum tour, which was right up our alley, so it was fantastic."
Linnaea said she loved how many little shops the city has, and she's planning on returning.
"I love it, I want to come back! It's very classy and everything, and there are just so many little shops to see."
The only suggestion the Lindenbachs offered were that certain pedestrian crossings could use better signage and controls.
"Trevor almost got run over in a crosswalk," Linnaea said, with a relieved laugh.
"Yeah, those crosswalks without the controls, I think those might be a little more freelance for drivers than perhaps they should be," Trevor agreed.
Wolfgang and Nancy Yager from Collingwood, Ont.
"We have an RV, so every year we take a long trip, like two months," explained Wolfgang Yager. "We came through Moose Jaw in 2020, but that was COVID and nothing was open. ... But this time everything is open, so we're quite happy to be here."
The Yagers drive across the country accompanied only by their little dog Layla (from the Eric Clapton song). Layla waits in the air-conditioned RV each day while Wolfgang and Nancy explore local attractions. Nancy plans each year's trip with spreadsheets for each day, and they tick boxes as they go.
"We're seniors now, so we really don't like to have to rush anymore," she laughed.
"We just got here yesterday, so we've only done the tunnel tour so far," Wolfgang continued. "And, yeah, it was quite interesting. I mean, we're not quite old enough to have lived through Prohibition, but we're old to hear about and appreciate the history, at least."
"From here, we're heading to Calgary ... then Kelowna, and we're going down into Washington state where his granddaughter lives, in Tacoma, and I have friends there," Nancy said. "And then we'll work our way back, maybe stop at Mt. Rushmore, we may even stop at Yellowstone."
The Yagers appreciated Moose Jaw's old town feel and enjoyed exploring, but felt the city could use some TLC, particularly the streets and sidewalks. They use e-bikes to get around the places they visit, and said the heavy bikes were sometimes hard to manoeuvre over potholes and ruts. They also thought it would be great to see tourism brochures handed out at RV parks (they are in the Lorne Calvert campground in Wakamow) and more signage for popular attractions like the Tunnels.
Nickel family from Abbotsford, B.C. and Grandma Doreen from Langham, Sask.
The Nickel family from Abbotsford, BC was visiting Moose Jaw on Wednesday, August 7 and were waiting downtown for their tunnel tour booking. Guided by their grandmother Doreen from Langham, Sask., the family was shown the best spots in town based on her expertise.
The family completed two of the three tunnel tours and were about to complete the trio. “For someone who’s not really interested in history, being able to live the story, be interactive with it, and have everyone included from every age made it very fun,” said Nate, explaining his favourite part of the Moose Jaw experience so far.
“I like the brick buildings,” said Emma. “Where we’re from, we don’t really have any brick buildings because it’s a newer city. It’s so cool, and it’s very quaint.”
“Staying at the spa and doing all the touristy things was good. The trolley is fun, and the information centre on the edge of town with the big moose was very fun too,” Dorren said. She has been on the trolley and isn’t new to visiting Moose Jaw, but the rest of the family was still awaiting their first ride.
Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com asked if the Nickel family had any suggestions to improve local tourism. “You can bring back the band parades on the May long weekend,” Jeff said. He was in the parade over 40 years ago and performed with A Band Time with Saskatoon West School Division. “It’s disappointing that they couldn’t keep it going.”
“I guess that’s progress, but it’s something that would be great to see come back,” he added.
Dylan Hanwell and Anna Sikora from Edmonton, Alta.
Dylan and Anna had just arrived in Moose Jaw and were on their way to the Tunnels of Little Chicago for the guided tour. This brief introduction to Moose Jaw was an ideal opportunity to explore the first impressions our community offers to tourists. They said it was a nice contrast to the larger city, and with the history intact it was a very positive experience.
Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com asked the couple about their favourite part of their visit so far. “The sushi was great,” said Hanwell. The couple’s first stop was at Mitsu Sweet Café & Sushi located at 115 Main Street North.
The couple’s next stop was the tunnel tour. “We’re looking forward to the tunnel tours. That should be fun.”
Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com asked them if they would improve anything about tourism in town. “What’s our advice, Anna?” Hanwell asked. “Well, we’ve only been in town for about 45 minutes so far,” Sikora replied. Regardless, this amount of time was more than enough to give them a positive impression of Moose Jaw and it took a while to think of something to improve on.
“Oh, bring change for the parking meters. I almost didn’t have change for the meters,” Hanwell said. When informed about the city’s former policy of offering free parking to tourists, they thought the idea was great.
“That would have been handy,” they both agreed.
