Highlights Archives
Hometown Stories: La Crosse Debuts May 12
On Monday, May 12, the latest installment in the Society's Wisconsin Hometown Stories partnership with Wisconsin Public Television debuts at 8 p.m. Each program in the series celebrates the evolution of a Wisconsin town, its residents and the stories they have to tell as a mirror of the entire state.
Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse drew on the resources of both institutions to tell the stories of a remarkable river town through the lives of its residents. The first white settlers arrived in 1842, and soon Mississippi riverboats were stopping at its wharves. Mark Twain, himself a riverboat pilot in the 1850s, visited La Crosse in 1880 and found it "a town of twelve or thirteen thousand population, with electric lighted streets, and with blocks of buildings which are stately enough, and also architecturally fine enough, to command respect in any city."
When the Wisconsin lumber industry boomed after the Civil War, La Crosse expanded rapidly with sawmills and associated businesses. A healthy dose of German immigrants helped start the brewing industry for which the city became well known in the 20th century.
Society staff were involved in several ways with making the new television program. Field representatives Rick Bernstein and Janet Seymour have been helping local historical societies develop an easily downloadable historic architectural walking tour and an interactive bird's-eye map of historic photos and information.
The Society's digital lab scanned dozens of photos used in the show or on its Wisconsin Stories Web site, helped create an interactive bird's-eye map, and designed marketing materials that will help ensure a large audience on Monday night. They can also make high-quality reproductions of photographs used on the program, which are among the many thousands of images already available from Wisconsin Historical Images.
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