Subscribe

   ...Full Story Here

Norwegian heritage will be celebrated at Westby’s 58th annual Syttende Mai festival, May 15-17.

   ...Full Story Here

or More Information HERE!

   ...Full Story Here

PEPIN, Wis. (WKBT) — “Once upon a time… a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.” This opening line launched a legacy.

Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up to chronicle the joys and hardships of frontier life—stories that later became the beloved "Little House" books and, eventually, a hit television series "Little House on the Prairie", starring Melissa Gilbert as Laura. Today, fans still travel to western Wisconsin to see where it all began.

Pepin, Wisconsin—Wilder’s birthplace—is home to a museum dedicated to her life and the memories that inspired her first book, "Little House in the Big Woods". The story focuses on her early years in the region and includes scenes readers still remember decades later: encounters with a bear, tales of Cousin Charley, and the famously odd “pig’s bladder” moment.

Wilder was born in 1867, about 10 miles from Pepin, in the small log home referenced in her writing. The routines of her family—her father hunting to provide food, her mother cooking and preserving for long winters, and young Laura playing alongside her sisters Mary and Carrie—became the foundation of the world she later put on paper...

   ...Full Story Here

RIVER FALLS - The annual Pierce County Economic Development Corporation Awards Breakfast recognized the 2026 award winners Thursday, May 7 at Junior's Restaurant & Tap House in River Falls. 

Awards winners included: 

Cornerstone Award: The late Jack Hines, the organization's highest honor for an individual who demonstrates extraordinary leadership and long-standing dedication to Pierce County's future. 

Professional Business Leader Award: Bevcomm is a fourth generation, family owned communications company founded in 1895 providing telephone, internet, video surveillance, managed IT, web  and cabling solutions throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

Small Business of the Year: River Road Coffee, owned and operated by Megan & David Gooselaw, is a mobile  coffee café offering specialty espresso drinks, fresh brewed coffee, teas, handcrafted cold brew, flavored lemonades, bakery items and more.

Tourism & Hospitality Award: Crysal Cave in Spring Valley, home to Wisconsin's longest cave, multiple tour options, mini golf, gem panning, prairie habitat and more. 

Economic Boost Award: Foley Company in Prescott, established in 1934, has a long-standing tradition of innovation and excellence in manufacturing high-quality grinding equipment for the turf industry. 

To learn more about events and resources, visit pcedc.com

   ...Full Story Here

Two areas in the region are getting help from the state to try to attract new people to move there.  

Governor Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) announced 17 communities are receiving a total of $5 million in Talent Recruitment Grants.  

The grants are designed to bring new workers and their families into the state to improve the workforce.  

Driftless Development, Incorporated in Crawford County is one of the recipients. They’re getting $500,000 in grant funding.  

Their efforts, according to the state, offers a “forgivable mortgage structure to incentivize long-term residency.” It goes on to say the program “prioritizes retention as heavily as recruitment.” 

   ...Full Story Here

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, there is a natural pull to look back — to reconsider the people, places and moments that shaped the nation.

In Monroe County, Wisconsin, that reflection carries a certain irony. The county bears the name of James Monroe, the nation’s fifth president, even though he never set foot in the region. Yet the story of Monroe County is not defined by its namesake, but by the generations of people who built lives there — and by one man who has spent more than two decades making sure those lives are remembered.

For more than 20 years, Jarrod Roll has served as director of the Monroe County Local History Room and Museum, a position that is at once highly visible and largely unseen.

   ...Full Story Here

Fridays 3:30 to 7 PM
Hmoob Community and Cultural Center
1815 Ward Avenue

• The La Crosse Farmers Market begins its weekly Friday schedule at the Hmoob Community and Cultural Center starting May 8

• The market operates from 3:30 to 7 p.m. every Friday through October at 1815 Ward Avenue

• This marks another location change for the market, which has moved multiple times in recent years due to safety concerns and declining attendance

   ...Full Story Here

Mississippi River Regional Planning Commision SouthWest NorthWest State Coulee Regional Business Center THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE Vernon Co. Economic Development La Crosse Area Development Corporation SBDC La Crosse Economic Development Community Development Economic Development Economic Development Trempealeau County Economic Development The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) Vernon Economic Development Association Workforce Connections, Inc. The Pierce County EDC EDC quarterly Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council Job and Business Development (JBD) Program Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority USDA Rural Development Wisconsin Xcel Energy Economic Development Economic Development

   ...Full Story Here

MADISON, Wis. — FixWIBridges.com launches today, providing the public, local officials, and policymakers with transparent, easy-to-access information on the condition of nearly 17,000 small local bridges and culverts across Wisconsin.

These critical local structures, spanning just 6 to 20 feet, have never been included in federal and state tracking systems. As a result, Wisconsin policymakers and communities, like in most states, lacked comprehensive data on the safety and stability of these structures and the potential impacts on the routes they depend on every day.

“We have long known that our local small bridges were aging, but we could not fix what we did not measure,” said Debby Jackson, executive director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin (TDA). “This website takes years of data and puts it directly into the hands of the taxpayers and leaders. It provides another reason why Wisconsin requires a clear roadmap to fund our most urgent needs and prioritize future investments.”

Thanks to $12.5 million in the 2023-2025 state budget, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), in partnership with local government associations, county highway departments, and stakeholder organizations, completed the first statewide inventory of these small structures. The effort identified nearly 17,000 small bridges and culverts...

FixWIBridges.com

   ...Full Story Here

Tackling the ups and downs of rural prosperity

Wisconsin’s rural communities face challenges such as housing shortages, aging populations, and, for some, the loss of schools and healthcare facilities. 

But through collaboration, cooperation, and community involvement, rural regions are attracting new residents and achieving economic development gains. 

Those successes were among the highlights of the Wisconsin Rural Partners Summit held April 29-30 in Prairie du Chien. The conference featured a series of panel discussions focused on life outside the state’s bustling urban centers. 

Navigating challenges together

Rural trends are changing, and communities within those regions should consider working across municipal boundaries and taking advantage of a growing range of opportunities, speakers said in a session about the state of rural Wisconsin. 

“Rural has become the new buzzword,” said Melissa Hunt, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Association, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education foundation. “That makes the work we do even more important right now.”... 

   ...Full Story Here

Antique lovers can find lots hidden gems throughout the Midwest, which is why it's such a great region for traveling by car, like this road trip to one of these Midwest towns that are time capsules of 1950s Americana. Between Minneapolis and Madison, you'll find a small Wisconsin village with a surprising treasure trove of antique shops: Hixton.

With a population of under 500 people, Hixton is a tiny village with an antique scene that's worthy of a much bigger city. In fact, Hixton is home to four large antique shops, leading one YouTuber to dub it "the town of antique malls" that "has more vintage than population." Local magazine Volume One calls Hixton "the Antiquing Capital of Wisconsin" with more antique stores "than the number of taverns and churches." Serious antique hunters say that it's easy to spend full days in Hixton, combing through antiques in search of a gem...



   ...Full Story Here

To list a dairy breakfast email information at least two weeks in advance to agriview@madison.com with breakfast name, date, time, location including street address and cost if any. Also include contact information for more event information. If the event's information has changed, please email agriview@madison.com with that change.

Interactive Dairy Breakfast Map Here

   ...Full Story Here

Ken Notes: Please make sure your event is on the list.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. — The Crawford County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution demanding detailed information from the developers of a massive high-voltage transmission line proposed for the Driftless Area, joining a growing wave of local governments mobilizing against the project.

Passed during the board’s Feb. 17 meeting, the resolution formally requests that Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance Heartland reply to 18 specific document requests by March 15, 2026. The requested documents range from detailed maps outlining routing preferences to information regarding environmental sensitivities and projected impacts on electric customer bills...

Ken Notes: There is a website for the project HERE!

   ...Full Story Here

   ...Full Story Here

Mississippi River conservation groups are among a broad coalition urging the federal government to take action against nitrate contamination in drinking water, which they say has reached “crisis levels” and is a public health emergency.

Nitrate, which forms when nitrogen-rich sources combine with oxygen, has long been found in the country’s surface waters and groundwater, where it can end up in people’s drinking water. Consuming water with elevated levels of nitrate is linked to birth defects, thyroid problems and some cancers.

Agricultural fertilizer and manure are the most common sources of nitrogen to groundwater, with septic systems and lawn fertilizers also contributing. An April analysis from the Environmental Working Group found that about 18% of the U.S. population from 2021 to 2023 used drinking water from community systems with 3 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or more of nitrate, the threshold at which the Environmental Protection Agency says indicates contamination.

Advocates say nitrate contamination has struggled to capture public attention but is costly and hazardous to those it affects. 

A May 5 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and the EPA was signed by 80-plus groups, about a third of which are located in or focused on the Mississippi River basin. It calls on the agencies to “immediately identify and eliminate sources of nitrate pollution in drinking water and provide funds to communities to reduce nitrate to safe levels.”..   ...Full Story Here

   ...Full Story Here

VERNON COUNTY, Wis. – Vernon County took a major step toward reshaping two of its most flood prone watersheds Thursday when officials announced that federal funding has been approved for engineering designs to remove or rebuild a system of aging flood control dams on Coon Creek and the West Fork of the Kickapoo River.

The announcement came at the May 14 meeting of the Vernon County Conservation and Education Committee where County Conservationist David Hettenbach laid out how the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service will pay for detailed design work on the PL 566 dams that were built for flood control in the mid twentieth century..

   ...Full Story Here

Research & Innovation

• Dairy Innovation Hub: Launched in 2019, this partnership across three UW campuses (Madison, Platteville, River Falls) supports over 260 projects focusing on land/water, human health, animal welfare, and farm business.
• Efficiency Gains: Due to innovations in crop production and nutrition, producing a gallon of milk in 2017 required 30% less water and 21% less land than in 2007.
• Waste-to-Resource: Wisconsin leads in on-farm bioenergy systems like methane digesters, which turn manure into renewable energy.

Land Stewardship

• Soil Health: About 60% of Wisconsin dairy farmers use cover crops to prevent erosion and nourish the soil, while many employ no-till or reduced tillage techniques.
• Water Management: Farmers commonly recycle water up to four times, utilizing it for cooling or cleaning before returning it to the land.
• Local Feed Production: Most crops fed to Wisconsin cows are grown on surrounding fields, limiting transportation emissions.

Cow Care & Comfort

• Health-Focused Management: Farmers emphasize that healthy, comfortable cows produce higher-quality milk. This includes balanced diets developed with nutritionists and specialized veterinary care.
• Comfort Technology: Sand separation technology is used to clean and reuse sand for bedding, reducing bacteria and keeping cows cool.
• Nutrient Management: Some farmers use specialized planting techniques to add cover crops like rye into the cows' diet while holding soil in place.

   ...Full Story Here

 

MAP		Discover Wisconsin Great River Road Video

   ...Full Story Here

WESTBY, Wis. – Recently, Westby Schools Superintendent Steve Michaels was honored to accept a generous donation from the Coon Valley American Legion that made a meaningful difference for our students and families.

After learning about student lunch debt across Wisconsin, Legion members Roger and Jessica reached out to better understand how the Westby Area School District supports its students. For more than a decade, the district has remained committed to ensuring every child receives a healthy meal—regardless of their lunch account balance—because no student should ever feel singled out or go without...

   ...Full Story Here

Nitrate pollution is especially acute in rural areas and has been linked to disease. More than 80 groups nationwide say immediate action is needed

   ...Full Story Here

Nature is anything but predictable. Just ask hunters who spend many hours in the woods.

That certainly was the case recently for Carson Bender, 19, of Wisconsin Rapids, who was attacked by a bobcat when he was turkey hunting near Nekoosa on April 18.

Bender caught the bobcat on video and it stalked the hunter, lunging at him and striking his left arm just before Bender took a shot at a gobbler that was near him. Bender was scratched but otherwise unharmed as the bobcat ran away...

   ...Full Story Here

LA CROSSE, Wis., (WLAX, WEUX) – A project that looks to bring together people of all ages in a shared environment is now welcoming adults.

Some adult programs are beginning to open up at the Hillview Life Center.

The center held a ribbon cutting ceremony earlier this month to mark the beginning of programs.

   ...Full Story Here

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has begun construction on a $190 million project that will transform the campus's science and health education capabilities, marking a significant investment in Wisconsin's workforce development.

Phase two of the Prairie Springs Science Center construction project will replace Cowley Hall with a state-of-the-art facility featuring 30 new laboratories, classrooms and specialized learning spaces. The new building will connect to the existing Prairie Springs facility, creating an integrated hub for science and health education...

   ...Full Story Here

SPARTA, Wis. (WKBT) -- Sparta Middle Schoolers transformed a new local park. 

90 students in the STEM program, 6th through 8th grade, spent Tuesday afternoon planting over 800 flowers. The flowers are in the shape of the sun. 

Wisconsin Pollinator Conservation Specialist Kathryn Prince says it's the perfect age to get involved with nature.  "This is the next generation of scientists coming out here and learning about this stuff. And this is when people start to get excited about things and decide what they're going to do for the rest of their lives... so having the opportunity to explore native plants and animals."

They can be found on the intersection of Long Ct. x Short Ct. in Sparta. The Google Maps location for the garden can be found here...

   ...Full Story Here

Western Wisconsin Regional Outdoor Recreation Plan for Rural Areas 2025

Monroe County Events Calendar	Crawford County Events Calendar Visitor Guide	Vernon County Events Calendar Visitor Guide
La Crosse County Events Calendar Visitor Guide	Trempealeau County Events Calendar Visitor Guide	Buffalo County Events Calendar
Pepin County Events Calendar Visitor Guide	Pierce County Events Calendar	Jackson County Events Calendar Visitor Guide

   ...Full Story Here

Working together to make the Mississippi River Region a great place to live and work.

   ...Full Story Here

Buffalo County, WI

...

Crawford County Wisconsin

...

Jackson County, WI 

...

Home (lacrossecounty.org)

...

Monroe County, WI | Home

...

Pepin County, WI

...

Pierce County, WI

...

Trempealeau County

...

Vernon County, WI

   ...Full Story Here

Regional Guides

		2023 Wisconsin Campground Directory
	Explore La Crosse

   ...Full Story Here