La Crosse, Wisconsin
From Encyclopediak
La Crosse, Wis., a city and county seat of La Crosse Co., 198 m. n.w. of Milwaukee and 130 m. s.e. of St. Paul, Minn., on the Mississippi River at the confluence of the La Crosse and Black rivers, and on the Chicago, Milwaukee St. Paul, the Chicago North Western, the Green Bay Western, the Chicago, Burlington Quincy and other railroads. Lines of Mississippi steamers ascend the river to this place. The river is here spanned by a number of bridges. La Crosse is situated on a level plain extending about two miles back from the river to bluffs from which fine views are obtained. There is excellent street-car service. The city is the trade center of a rich agricultural region and a general distributing point for western Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. The city contains well-paved, wide and shaded streets, and there is a fine system of public parks, which include Myrick, Copeland, Riverside and Burns parks. Pettibone Park is on an island in the Mississippi.
There are many handsome residences and picturesque drives about the city. Among the noteworthy buildings are the county courthouse, Federal Building, city hall, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. buildings, a convent, banks, opera houses and good municipal buildings. There are numerous handsome church edifices and the city is the seat of a Catholic see. A United States weather station and a government fish station are located here. The educational institutions include a state normal school, agricultural school, high school, public and parish schools, the Washburn Library, several business colleges and a number of private schools. The city is also a center for university extension work. Among the benevolent institutions are the La Crosse, the St. Francis, Grand View and the Lutheran hospitals and nearby is a hospital for the chronic insane.
La Crosse is an important lumber and grain market, and has grain elevators, flour mills, cooperages, woolen mills, carriage and wagon works, lumber and planing mills, engine and boiler works and manufactories of candies, rubber goods, pearl buttons, corrugated-iron roofing, cigars, brooms, brushes, knit goods, agricultural implements, boots and shoes, automobile accessories, crackers and other diversified products. Father Hennepin visited the site of La Crosse as early as 1680, but the first permanent settlement was made by Nathan Myrick and others in 1841. The place was incorporated as a village in 1851 and granted a city charter in 1856. A revised charter was given in 1891. Population in 1920, U. S. census, 30,363.
