Historical Walk of La Crosse River Marsh

1.      Gorder Road connnecting Myrick with George Street  (gone as part of athletic field deal)  UW-L had grand filling-in plans, but DNR stopped them.  1981 compromise was agreed to.

2.      George Street/ Lang Drive called Rubbish Road because original built each summer with garbage (spring floods washed road away)

3.      1976 the River and Bluff Bicentennial Intracity Trail (RABBIT Trails)

4.      1938 Frank Hoeschler claimed a civic duty to obliterate the marsh.  Drain into lake and create residential and industrial areas (failed because some citizens did not want to spend the money)  1944 “a cesspool, disgracing a city that otherwise boasts being modern in every aspect.”

5.      Copeland (plank road called Old Plank Road in 1855)  Lang Drive finished in 1932

6.      Marsh not natural (starting in 1885, different railroads and roads started blocking water to the river, making it wetter and wetter; biggest drainage development after WWII.  End of Silver Creek.  Damming of Mississippi River also contributes to raised water level

7.      Goosetown  (dairy cow and geese; took turns watching all night; in fall, fatten with noodles and potatoes, slaughtered and sent to Dubuque and St. Louis)

8.      North-South Corridor

9.      Red Cloud Park  (set aside because was Winnebago campsite until 1890) also Buffalo Bill and Doc Powell lived there and built 4-story observation tower)

10.  Marsh was part of Goosetown subsistance (marsh potatoes, asparagus, trapping, carp, buffalofish, bullheads)

11.  Water supply (1912; wells and road to the wells)  pumped water to Grandad’s, then supplied city with gravity)  (guarded 24 hours/day during WWII for fear of enemy sabotage)  Wells later abandoned because bad taste from iron and magnesium, although also fertilizer contaminants)

12.  Golf Course north of trails, but May-June floods meant opening month later than other courses; eventually went out of business

13.  Bartl’s brewery cut ice until the 1920’s

14.  around 1937, Works Progress Administration built lake north of Myrick (for swimming and skating)

15.  Trap shooting developed in 1932 (in 1952, actually salvage lead out of the marsh).  1963 the license was not renewed)  Gun Club shelter remnant of that time

16.  Myrick Park was locale for Lover’s Lane with grottoes and waterfalls

17.  Gypsy camp at highway 16 and railroad (near Alamo Saloon, then Stonehouse until 1977, when it burned down; was hot spot for students). 

18.  Nathan Myrick was fur trader, first white permanent resident (1841)

19.  County Fair was in Myrick Park with half mile race track

Email me at simpson.stev@mail.uwlax.edu

Last modified 9/23/02.