Wandering Around Wabasha

A few weeks ago, a friend and I visited another friend at her new home in Wabasha, Minnesota. Such a quaint little town! My friend had fallen in love with it a long time ago, and a year ago, she up and moved two hundred miles away to be where she felt called. How I admire her.

Resting on the Mississippi River banks, Wabasha is Minnesota's oldest city and longest continuously inhabited river town. It was first settled in 1826 and officially became a city in 1830.

Wabasha was a bustling town, with logging, shipping, flour milling, trading, and clamming. The discarded clam shells could be used to make buttons, which led to a booming button industry.   

The bridge over the Mississippi.

The historic Anderson House.

The hotel opened in 1856 and was Minnesota's oldest continuously operating inn west of the Mississippi River.

The hotel's restaurant was known for its Dutch cooking. The hotel itself was famous for the cats that could stay in the rooms with hotel guests for overnight companionship.

I'm sure the rest of the buildings in town have fascinating stories as well.

 

Fall Vacation Day 2

Whenever we leave the Renaissance Festival, tradition dictates that we stop at Jim’s Apple Farm (aka Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store) before we head to wherever we are going for the night. Last Sunday was no different. 

Unbelievably, they added on since last year. 

But even with all that stuff – aisles and aisles of candy and other treats – driving down the roads of America’s heartland is still more mouth-watering to me. 

St Mary’s Catholic Church in New Trier. 

We spent Sunday night in Red Wing and the next morning, explored Corvill Park before heading down along the Mississippi River. 

Seems like these Fairy Houses can be found everywhere. I need to get some for my yard. 

The historic Anderson house in Wabasha. The whole town was filled with scarecrows and pumpkins for the fall. We drove around checking them out, but it was starting to rain. Then we ended up going the wrong way down a one-way street, so I just wanted to get out of town

There was just as much to see in Winona, but we were feeling pressed for time. A quick drive through town and a walk through Windom Park. This dad zipping his son’s jacket was too adorable to pass up. 

Further down the Mighty Mississippi, we crossed the bridge back into Wisconsin as we came to La Crosse. I went to college here for one year back in my foolish youth. And unbelievably, never went to up to Granddad Bluff, overlooking the city. 

Beautiful views. 

And I made another friend. Ellen Pennell Hixon. In the early 1900s, the bluffs overlooking La Crosse were being whittled away, the stone being used for home foundations and roadways in the developing river town. Mrs. Hixon couldn’t stand to have the beautiful Grandad Bluff destroyed. She started a fund to buy the piece of land and donated $12,00 to get the ball rolling. Only another $5,000 was needed to purchase the property and build a road to the top of the bluff. The funds were all raised by 1909 and in 1912, the bluff and surrounding land were turned over to the city of La Crosse. 

I’m looking at the map now, trying to figure out where we went next, how many times did we cross the Mississippi. And how many times we went back and forth between Minnesota and Wisconsin and then Iowa. (We hit Illinois before we came home, but that’s for another day.) 

At Marquette, Iowa, before crossing back into Wisconsin. 

No matter what, I still love the symmetric beauty of the farm fields the best.   

It's been suggested that I write a book of all my travels across America. If you saw the files on my computer, you would realize that I already have.

Eagles and a Rock

July 27, 2009, am - It was a quiet April morning in 1995. Maxine Anderson had just finished taking some pictures of the remodeling project inside her home along the Great River Road through Fountain City, Wisconsin. Suddenly she heard a noise similar to a freight train coming from the steep bluff behind her house. Before she could move, the house shook and the walls shuddered and groaned.

A 55 ton boulder had broken lose from the bluff above and rolled into the bedroom right behind her. Many of the other walls cracked, but only one window in the rest of the house broke. Unfortunately, all of the doors shifted so that frantic Mrs. Anderson couldn’t get out until a man who worked across the road at the Corp of Engineers broke his way in. Similar to the more famous family from the Amityville Horror, the Andersons moved out immediately, fearing another boulder would roll into their house from the steep hill. Not a bad idea, since a woman was killed in the house just next door when the same thing happened in 1901.

Maybe not a must see stop on everyone’s list, but my husband and I thought it was interesting. And admission was only a buck, on your honor. Our next stop that morning was a wee bit more expensive.

Wabasha is known for its Eagles. Along this stretch of the Mississippi River, bald eagles live year-round, but during the winter hundreds frequent this area, catching fish where the river doesn’t freeze over. The National Eagle Center features Angel, Columbia, Harriet, Donald and Was’aka, eagles who can’t fly so can never be released into the wild. Watch them for a while and you know where the phrase “eagle eye” comes from.