The History of the Passage to Fortune in Moose Jaw
The Passage To Fortune is part of an intricate tunnel system that runs beneath the city of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada. It was in these particular tunnels that Chinese immigrants to Canada in the mid to late nineteenth century sought refuge from persecution, but found it anyway.
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The Beginning
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The tunnels beneath Moose Jaw were, ironically enough, dug by Chinese immigrants working for the Canadian Railroad. In the mid to late nineteenth century, the buildings in downtown Moose Jaw were all heated by steam controlled boilers that were located underground. The basements of the buildings were made to connect to one another, forming the tunnel system that originated from the Canadian Pacific railroad station. This was to give steam engineers easier access to the boilers.
Emigration From China and The US
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Beginning in 1858, Canada saw an influx of Chinese immigrants arriving both from their homeland in China and from the bordering US. This influx continued until around 1900. The immigrants coming from China were looking for a better life and living conditions while the immigrants from the US were escaping the harsh conditions that were imposed upon them while employed on the Transcontinental Railroad.
Forced Underground
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The majority of Chinese immigrants arrived in Canada via a 'coolie broker.' This was the term given to traffickers who exploited the Chinese by turning them into indentured servants. The immigrants were given jobs in various sweatshop type establishments located in the tunnels and paid next to nothing for 18 hour days. The majority of their wages were held by the coolie broker to pay back their smuggling debts. The brokers also charged room and board for housing immigrants in unventilated, crowded bunk rooms in the tunnels near the sweatshops. Other Chinese immigrants who were lucky enough to arrive in Canada on their own were still forced underground to be with their own kind due to the taunting from the native Canadians on the streets.
Total Exclusion
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By the early 1880s, thousands of Chinese immigrants had converged upon Canada. The anti-Chinese sentiment among the native Canadians resulted in the passage of the Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration to Canada in 1885. This act stated that every Chinese person entering the country must pay a fee of $50 at their point of entry. This caused a boom for the coolie brokers' business. In 1902 the fee was raised to $100 and eventually ballooned to $500. In 1923, the Exclusion Act was passed, which banned Chinese immigration into Canada all together.
Prohibition
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Once the Chinese immigrants had vacated the tunnels and were excluded from the country, Moose Jaw's underground once again came to life with illegal activity. During the Prohibition Era of the 1920s, the tunnels were home to casinos, speakeasies, and brothels, which earned it the nickname of Little Chicago. Bootleg alcohol was manufactured and distributed within the confines of the tunnels before making its way to points south, including into the United States. The bootleg liquor arrived in the United States via the Soo Line Railroad in Chicago, which was constructed in part by the same Chinese immigrants who sought, but did not find, freedom in the liquor's point of origin.
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