Yesterday in la Crosse
- Making the roads safer in Minnesota, 18 years ago July 30, 2021In 2003, the Minnesota DOT had a public meeting in the La Crescent area to discuss long-range transportation plans. One project high on the local list was a plan to make the Dresbach interchange safer. Some deadly crashes had occurred over the years at the intersection of Highway 61 and I-90, near the bridge that […]
- Holy Moses! Fighting over the 10 Commandments, 36 years ago July 30, 2021In the summer of 1985, Madison’s Freedom from Religion Foundation launched its first effort to have a 10 Commandments marker removed from La Crosse’s Cameron Park. It was the most prominent complaint anyone had made about the stone monument since it was installed in to honor volunteers who battled the 1965 flood. About 800 people […]
- Pig races were a big attraction at Riverfest, 11 years ago July 9, 2021During La Crosse’s Riverfest in 2010, a Missouri company called Swifty’s Swine featured hogs racing around a track. Race watchers could cheer for their favorite animals, with names like Brad Pig and Kevin Bacon. The Puttin’ on the Lips competition at Riverfest was back, after a year off. The lip-synch event based on a popular TV show […]
- Opening day for the new City Hall, 51 years ago July 2, 2021Saturday, July 4th, 1970, La Crosse dedicated a 6-floor City Hall, which is still La Crosse’s main office building today. It replaced the City Hall that stood for nearly 80 years at the corner of 6th and State, now part of the post office parking lot. La Crosse’s oldest living mayor, 86-year-old Gus Boerner, cut […]
- Two murder cases competing for headlines, 27 years ago June 25, 2021In June of 1994, O.J. Simpson was arrested for a double murder after the infamous “white Bronco” chase in California. The Simpson case broke the same week that a triple-murder trial began in La Crosse for James Frydenlund, a Twin Cities man accused of killing his estranged wife, Suzzette, and her parents, Leroy and Celia […]
- Those pesky bugs returned for the summer…mosquitoes, 50 years ago June 11, 2021In June of 1971, the La Crosse city council was back to debating the best way to control mosquitoes. Aldermen voted down a plan to resume the long-time practice of sending fog machines out on summer nights, and proposed an April referendum to let voters decide whether to continue fogging. A Tribune editorial predicted that […]
- “Fangs” for the memories? A rock band meets a fan, 8 years ago June 8, 2021In May of 2013, a couple eyebrows may have been raised when a man from Superior appeared in Judge Dale Pasell’s courtroom, and the judge was asked to order the man to stay away from rock bands called “American Fangs” and “Hollywood Undead.” Twenty-three-year-old Scott Mehtala said he thought he was in Superior, but he […]
- We’re off to see the Wizard…at Oktoberfest? May 19, 2021In 1994, La Crosse’s Oktoberfest chose a button design featuring a wizard and a crystal ball, emphasizing the “magic” of the 34-year-old festival. But one person from Coon Valley wondered where the heck a wizard fit into the fest. He wrote to the Tribune, complaining that Oktoberfest wasn’t German enough, and said associating a wizard […]
- Viva Las Vegas! We play “21” with the King May 14, 2021Elvis Presley was just 21 when he played his only concerts in La Crosse, two shows in one night at the old Mary E. Sawyer auditorium on May 14th, 1956. Twenty-one years later, in August of 1977, Presley died at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. Twenty-one years after the death of Elvis, the very first ‘Elvis Explosion’ […]
- What do you call that big round thing with the tomato sauce on it? Pizza catches on in La Crosse, 60 years ago May 11, 2021Pizza Hut, Pizza Villa, Pizza Ranch, Pizza Doctors. La Crosse has fallen in love—that’s “amore”—with the Italian delicacy of crust and sauce, cheese and toppings. In 1961, the Racquet newspaper at La Crosse State devoted a large article to the popularity of pizza in the U.S. Only about 500 pizza places existed in North America […]