North America's First Underground City Started With ONE Secret Tunnel in 1900

In 1985, a manhole collapsed in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan revealing a secret underground city that had been hidden beneath Canadian streets for nearly 80 years. What started as ONE secret tunnel in 1908 became North America's most notorious underground network, used by Chinese immigrants fleeing persecution and later by Al Capone's bootleggers during Prohibition. This is the TRUE story of how Canada's hidden tunnel system became Little Chicago. THE FULL STORY Welcome to Canada From Below where we uncover the hidden histories buried beneath Canadian soil. THE UNDERGROUND CITY THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST When Chinese immigrants finished building Canada's transcontinental railway in 1885, they were met with hatred, not gratitude. The Canadian government imposed a $500 head tax equivalent to two years' wages on Chinese immigrants. By 1908, Saskatchewan stripped them of voting rights. The message was clear you built our railway, now disappear. So they did disappear but not the way Canada expected. THE FIRST SECRET TUNNEL 1908 After Chinese railway workers were beaten at the CPR yards in Moose Jaw, they began to dig. What started as a single basement corridor to avoid -40°F winters became an underground refuge network. Using salvaged railway tracks as ceiling supports, they built narrow passages connecting laundries, restaurants, and boarding houses beneath River Street and Main Street. Workers who couldn't afford deportation lived entirely underground washing clothes, cooking meals, sending wages to families in Guangdong Province they'd never see again. Then Prohibition changed everything. AL CAPONE'S CANADIAN CONNECTION When Saskatchewan went dry in 1917 and the U.S. followed in 1920, these survival tunnels became the most valuable real estate in North America. Moose Jaw sat on the Soo Line a direct rail connection to Chicago. The same tunnels that sheltered immigrants now smuggled Canadian whiskey to Al Capone's empire. While hard proof of Capone standing on Main Street remains elusive, his grand-niece Deirdre Capone confirmed family connections to Moose Jaw. His lieutenant Diamond Jim Brady frequently visited. When asked about Canada, Capone allegedly quipped "I don't even know what street Canada is on." LITTLE CHICAGO IS BORN Underground speakeasies flourished. Gambling dens operated 24/7. An 11 year old newspaper boy named Lawrence Mullin crawled through the tunnels carrying coded warnings when police raids were coming. Moose Jaw population 20,000 ran a vice economy rivaling cities ten times its size. The city's police chief was on the take. Bootleggers loaded whiskey crates onto railcars without ever appearing on public streets. The tunnels made it all invisible. THE 1985 DISCOVERY & REBIRTH After Prohibition ended in 1933, the tunnels were sealed and forgotten until that manhole collapse in 1985 revealed a brick chamber with no explanation on city blueprints. In 2000, entrepreneur Danny Guillaume opened the Tunnels of Moose Jaw as a historical attraction. Within two years, $65 million in investment revitalized the dying downtown. The city that called itself "Friendly" rebranded as "Canada's Most Notorious City." Today, over 100,000 visitors annually walk through reconstructed passages built on real history history of discrimination, survival, crime, and redemption. WHAT'S STILL DOWN THERE? Local historians believe entire tunnel sections remain sealed beneath Moose Jaw's streets, undiscovered since 1908. The original network absorbed history in layers immigrant refuge, gangster highway, tourist salvation. One tunnel started it all. One corridor built by men who had no other safe way to move through their own city. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE to Canada From Below for more buried Canadian histories 👍 LIKE if you want to see more hidden tunnel networks 💬 COMMENT where you're watching from #UndergroundCity #MooseJaw #AlCapone #CanadianHistory #SecretTunnels #ChineseImmigrants #Prohibition #Saskatchewan #HiddenHistory #LittleChicago #Bootleggers #Speakeasy #TunnelNetwork #CanadaFromBelow #TrueHistory