Day One: The Great River Road
Tour
The confluence of
the Wisconsin and
Mississippi rivers. Start your heritage tour in Prairie du Chien, where Highway
18 meets the Mississippi River. Tour Villa
Louis,
an 1870s Victorian mansion built by the family of fur
trader Hercules Dousman, who established a fortune
through land speculation, railroads and other frontier
investments. Owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical
Society, the Villa Louis celebrated its 50th anniversary
as a historic site in 2002. Hailed by critics as one
of America's most authentically furnished and decorated
Victorian homes, Villa Louis unveiled
the second stage of a major interior restoration that
has returned the mansion to its brilliant and breathtaking
1890s heyday.
Take Highway 18 just three miles south to Wyalusing
State Park,
which offers bluff-top panoramas of the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi
rivers. It was here, on June 17, 1673, that two French explorers — fur
trader Louis Jolliet and missionary Father Jacques Marquette — entered the Mississippi
River from the Wisconsin. That expedition, which began a month earlier in the
Straits of Mackinac, marked the first time European explorers had discovered
the Fox-Wisconsin waterway traversing Wisconsin to the Mississippi.
Take in the historic and scenic vista with a picnic lunch, then head
north along Wisconsin's Great
River Road (Highway 35), designated
a National Scenic Byway. Enjoy this enchanting drive
along the Mississippi, offering incredible panoramic
views of the river with stops in quaint towns that dot the picturesque
route. Day one draws to a close 60 miles north in the beautiful river
city of La
Crosse, where you can enjoy dinner followed by a moonlit stroll
along the river. Spend the night at one of the many
fine local hotels or bed and breakfast inns.
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