A-Z

Advantages:  Living in La Crosse for a long time, it becomes extraordinarily easy to take for granted the geographical advantages we enjoy here in the coulee region.  Surrounded by the contours of the drift less region – the long spine-like plateaus of the bluffs, and the equally long dugout of the world's second largest river – we are literally always in the middle of something geographical, some forest, some coulee…some golf course…and hunters are rarely more than a short jaunt away from a reasonable placement of a tree stand.  If anything, living in the coulee region leaves the native simply wanting more like it, but perhaps on a grander scale, so is willing, when time allows, to trip to the western mountains where the elevation reaches 10,000 instead of 1,000, and river water might turn to a dramatic kettle moraine.  The geography determined the fate of La Crosse as a trading hub where so many rivers meet, at first by foot and canoe, but later by steamboat

and then railroad, fur and lumber the resources that gathered pioneers around the prospects of fortune, such as Myrick himself, a fur trader and our non-Indian founder.  La Crosse has obviously grown since its establishment by settlers, but it retains, in its native element, its blue collar roots.  La Crosse is not a fancy city; it even shows, sometimes, somewhat of a collective loathing towards extravagance.  One of the most famous restaurants in town, the Freighthouse, succeeded so well because it captured an acceptable tone of gritty elegance – located in an old railroad station, it harkens back to our pioneer days and the visitor can see quickly that not every corner of every railroad boxcar is sparkling.

The steaks, fancy if you want them, are thick, filling, and had better not be overpriced – another geographical value that reveals a sort 'if you don't do it right, I'll do it myself' mentality that pervades the roots of the La Crosse area.  All said, despite some corporate flourishing, three colleges and two hospitals, La Crosse is a blue-collar town, in which metal fabrication and printing leads the list of industry.  A new merging of new trends in the city, such as 'Buy Local' (which is actually just an old and common sense way of going about business), with the old structures, rituals, and recreations, gives La Crosse its own brand of personality.  Blue Collar La Crosse is an attempt to collect history, herstory, food, travel, and daily experience from the perspective of a native, assembled by the hopefully successful device of the alphabet.  To know La Crosse, the first thing that has to be considered is geographical advantages.