University of Wisconsin - Extension

For More Information:

Erik Ernst, WPT publicist, (608) 265-3853, erik.ernst@wpt.org

Carol Larson, WPT executive producer, (608) 263-6370, carol.larson@wpt.org

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Telling Wisconsin’s History, One Town at a Time

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse, a new history documentary from Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), premieres at 8 p.m. Monday, May 12 on WPT. The program tells the story of one of the state’s iconic river towns. Like each of the towns in the Wisconsin Hometown Stories series, the La Crosse program connects Wisconsin’s past to its present.

The Wisconsin Hometown Stories series is produced by WPT through a partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse is produced in cooperation with the La Crosse County Historical Society.

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse follows the evolution of the city at the junction of the Mississippi, Black and La Crosse Rivers from its earliest days to the present. Film, archival images, and interviews with historians and local citizens tell the stories of La Crosse’s native people, politics, ever-changing local industries, and influential higher education and medical institutions.

Native people knew of La Crosse’s significance long before explorer Zebulon Pike climbed one of the area’s signature bluffs in 1803 and declared the sight “altogether a prospect so varied and romantic that man may scarcely expect to enjoy such a one but twice or thrice in the course of a life.”

Oral histories from the Ho-Chunk people describe the region as a highly populated area in the Upper Mississippi from 1300-1600. Those stories are backed up by archeological finds from the 20th century that uncovered a culture called the Oneota. Small artifacts led the way to the discovery of a large fortified village in the 1970s – the first of many similar villages that were uncovered later.

In the 1840s, European settlers found their way to the area and began trading with the Ho-Chunk that remained in the area. The settlements grew slowly until the lumber industry began to drive both the local economy and immigration. The city soon became a busy port powered by steam as steamboats and steam locomotives transported the lumber produced by steam-powered sawmills.

Lumber barons like Gideon Hixon, whose house is now a restored La Crosse County Historical Museum featured in the program, prospered from a surge of white pine that aided construction throughout Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas. And as railroads out-competed steamboats, the U.S. Army Corps of engineers began to reshape the Mississippi River, making it easier for navigation and decreasing the number of wrecks.

In the 1890s, the arrival of a Norwegian physician laid the groundwork for what would become one of La Crosse’s most important industries. Adolf Gundersen soon gained a wide-reaching reputation as a skilled surgeon. Patients traveled by rail from far reaches to Lutheran Hospital. Four of Gundersen’s six physician sons joined him to form what has become the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, now the city’s largest employer.

The city reinvented itself on the backs of other industries after the lumber industry peaked in the 1890s. While the railroads remained large employers, a local plow company, rubber firm and auto-related industries became important in the community. A small plumbing and steam-heating firm grew into the national powerhouse Trane Co. after owner Reuben Trane invented a convector radiator.

Conservation efforts also maintained the integrity of the natural river ways and surrounding bluffs as the growth of three local colleges spurred a new area of enterprise in the post-lumber economy. Now, the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, Viterbo University and Western Technical College bring more than 15,000 students to the area annually.

Following a great flood in 1965, the city began a grand-scale revitalization of its riverfront, embracing new high-tech industries that spurred the local economy, while still retaining its place as a historic river town.

The Wisconsin Stories Web site at WisconsinStories.org offers a comprehensive resource for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse. A teacher resource guide is in development and will be available after May 5 on the Web at www.ecb.org/hometownstories.

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse was produced by WPT Producer David Hestad.

Principal funding for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse was provided by Don and Roxanne Weber, Gail K. Cleary/Cleary-Kumm Foundation, Kwik Trip, Charles and Sue Anne Gelatt with additional funding by Gundersen Lutheran Health System, Dahl Automotive of La Crosse/Onalaska, Sigurd B. Gundersen, Jr. and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television and The Wisconsin History Fund supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

WPT is a service of the Educational Communications Board and University of Wisconsin–Extension.

WPT celebrates and connects the people of Wisconsin through programming like Wisconsin Hometown Stories on WHA-TV/DT, Madison; WPNE-TV/DT, Green Bay; WHRM- TV/DT, Wausau; WLEF-TV/DT, Park Falls; WHLA-TV/DT, La Crosse; and WHWC-TV/DT, Menomonie-Eau Claire.