Moose Jaw’s lost murals restored to downtown

Some of the lost treasures of Moose Jaw’s heritage have been given new life.

On November 1, the Moose Jaw Murals Board unveiled six murals that were lost to the city due to fires and demolitions.

Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie, along with Todd McRoberts and Pastor Walter Engel with the murals board were some of the dignitaries in attendance at the event and spoke of the city’s past and the importance of the murals.

Also in attendance was Grant McLaughlin, a mural artist in Moose Jaw who faithfully restored all six of the lost artworks.

“Especially for ‘Remember Old 80’ and ‘River Street Red’, one or the other were both favourites of a lot of people and I think they’ve wanted those ones to come back for a number of years,” said McLaughlin. “I think it’s gonna make a lot of people happy and it helps preserve their history as well.”

McLaughlin restored ‘Remember Old 80,’ ‘River Street Red,’ ‘Summer Games, ‘Incorporation of the City of Moose Jaw,’ ‘Moose Jaw Union Hospital,’ and ‘Our Ukrainian Heritage.’

Norma Westgard, chair of the mural board, is very appreciative of McLaughlin as he took on the project and dutifully recreated the murals.

“I don’t know what our murals board would do without Grant. He’s not only amazing, he’s very talented, and he does all of our restorations and all of our repairs,” said Westgard. “He’s always there when we need a question [answered]. I am not artistic, so if we have a question he usually knows the answer.”

The newly restored murals now sit on the side of McKarr’s Furniture on 2nd Ave. NW.

The hope is that the city will lose fewer murals as time goes on, as some of them are on panels now.

You can find more information on the murals of Moose Jaw and their artist on the city’s website.