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Cruising La Crosse

These days, the riverfront is an even bigger draw than the bars.

We'd been in La Crosse for barely an hour, and everyone we'd met was a certified character.

In Riverside Park, Frank and Faith Rimmert and Jonathan and Barb Rimmert were decked out in top hats, waistcoats and crinolines to meet the Mississippi Queen paddlewheeler, portraying the 19th-century locals who would have assembled.

"If your relatives were coming for a visit, you'd come to greet them," said Faith Rimmert, a volunteer for the La Crosse County Historical Society. "People picked up things being shipped in, or maybe you'd be looking for a servant — you'd say, 'I want that person for a servant in my house.'"

As the history buffs smiled for the camera, a wedding party in black dresses, black fishnet stockings and purple ankle boots hurried toward their own photo session in a gazebo.

Then, a lime-green 1953 fire truck full of German shepherds drew up, blasting its horn. It was Charles Weeth of La Crosse Skyrockers, a volunteer group that puts on special effects and fireworks shows at city festivals.

"I can do a hundred effects off this thing," he said. "I've got really loud whistles that set off a fountain of silver sparks and one that goes whoosh in a great ball of fire. Oh, we have a lot of fun here."

He invited us to hop in and said he was still recovering from Oktoberfest, which had ended six days before. When I asked if it was true the festival had become more sedate in recent years, he had to think about it for a while.

"Well, there aren't the riots and tear gas and all," he said. "But you know how it is when alcohol and testosterone and estrogen get all tied together."

La Crosse always has been a destination for drinkers, with as many as eight breweries, three colleges and a downtown with so many consecutive bars it once held a Guinness world record.

Not long ago, a reputation was nearly all La Crosse had. Damage from a 1965 flood forced the city to demolish many historic buildings, turning the riverfront into an empty patch of sand.

A new mall off the interstate drew business from downtown, and the big department stores closed. Even its status as a drinking town took a hit in 1999, when its last brewery closed briefly.

But downtown La Crosse is looking spruced up these days, with new brick pavers and period street lamps. The brewery is back, partly owned by employees and renamed City Brewery for its 1858 origins.

The sand patch is a verdant park surrounded by hotels; it's the home of one of the last steamboats, the Julia Belle Swain, which offers cruises up and down the river. The giant Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen stop to let their passengers go sightseeing, evoking the era of Mark Twain, who got off a boat in 1882 and pronounced La Crosse "a choice town."

Named for a game

We were there during Historic Downtown La Crosse Days, so we joined a tour led by architectural historian Barbara Kooiman.

The town is named for the game French traders saw the local Ho-Chunk playing; the first resident set up a fur post to trade with them, and by the time Twain arrived, La Crosse was a thriving rail and river center with nearly two dozen lumber mills.

Some of the downtown he saw — "blocks of buildings, which are stately enough, and also architecturally fine enough, to command respect on any city'' — is still there: the 1879 Italianate Pamperin Cigar Co., still with original copper panels under its windows; the 1872 Healy Block, where Dr. Frank "White Beaver" Powell ran a drugstore; and the 1878 John Walter Building, now with a 1933 Art Moderne facade.

"We have quite a gem here," Kooiman said. "People talk about all the buildings torn down, but we have a nice concentration here."

As we walked farther from the river, the buildings became newer with each block, until we reached the Prairie School Odin J. Oyen Building, built in 1912 for an interior designer, and the 1930 art-deco Hoeschler Building, with sconces and mosaic panels.

"That's what's neat about La Crosse," Kooiman said. "As you progress away from the river, the styles shift with each decade."

Behind the historic facades that day, costumed characters were portraying Oyen, Frank Powell and Dr. Adolph Gundersen, who founded the local hospital. John Satory, a former president of the historical society, has played Powell and merchant Mons Anderson. But this year, he was behind the counter of his Satori Arts shop on Pearl Street.

On a shelf over his head sat boxes of products once made in La Crosse — Jay-Tee Japan Green Tea, Peerless Beer and Funk's Happy Boy Confections, made on the site of town founder Nathan Myrick's cabin.

Another case held Doc Powell memorabilia, including a ruler stamped "White Beaver's Cough Cream and Wonder Worker," which Powell marketed with his friend William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who often came to visit.

Powell was a medical-college graduate, and his mother was part Seneca, known as a medicine chief, Satory said. "He believed in herbal medicines, so people thought he was a quack."

On the sidewalk outside the shop, people lounged in the sun, eating ice-cream cones from an old-time parlor. Overhead, painted ladies looked on from murals on the boarded-up windows of the 1887 Schwartz Block, once a disreputable hotel.

"This neck of the woods was really a bad part of town," Satory said. "They used to arrest GIs if they were found in the area."

It was only a block to the river and the dock of the Julia Belle Swain, a favorite sight around town. Built in 1971 around 1915 steam engines, its machinery is something to see: massive red and white pistons on long yellow rods, slowly sliding into their steam cylinders with an oily wheeze and back out.

On board, listening to the rhythmic exhalations of steam from the smokestack, it was easy to slip into the 19th century. As the town faded into the distance, a white-haired Mark Twain appeared, spouting familiar aphorisms, and a banjo player performed old standards. The relaxed atmosphere was spoiled only by the boat's piano player, who wore a "Bush-Cheney" button on her blouse; "Garfield-Arthur" would have been much more appropriate.

A brew or two

We couldn't leave town without touring City Brewery and seeing its World's Largest Six Pack. When it was Heileman, the only La Crosse brewery to survive Prohibition, the giant storage cylinders bore the Old Style logo; today, they look like cans of La Crosse Lager.

The last time I visited, our tour guide told us that students once tried to tap the cans with an ax, nearly blowing up the neighborhood.

Our guide this time, Luke Rosynek, said he hadn't heard that story, but he offered a stupid drinking trick of his own: One Oktoberfest, he said, some men sawed the stein out of the hand of King Gambrinus, the potbellied medieval connoisseur whose wooden statue stands outside the brewery. They used it to drink beer during the festival, then returned it to the king.

In La Crosse, drinking legends are legion, many revolving around the brewery, which once offered unlimited imbibing before and after tours.

Things have calmed down since, and Rosynek gave us a folksy but informative tour, explaining that City is the last large brewery in the United States to fully krauesen its beer, allowing it to carbonate naturally through a long second fermentation, producing a smoother beer.

After the tour, we each got a tray of six half-glasses, from the nicely hoppy Festbier and Pale Ale to the bland Kül Light, advertised with the slogan, "It's hot, it's got Umlaut!"

When the brewery was between owners in 1999, Rosynek said, many employees worked there without pay for up to eight months, in a successful effort to make it more attractive to investors. No one could imagine La Crosse without a brewery.

"The city talked about demolishing it for housing," Rosynek said. "But it's kind of a staple in the area."

Back downtown, we stopped by the Casino, a former speakeasy whose Art Moderne interior Barbara Kooiman had urged us to see. It wasn't a typical bar: A sign over the bar read "No Coors, No Bud. Get Over It," and in its handwritten menu of more than 100 international beers was the note, "Will not become prostitute to profit."

Owner Donald Padesky, who says he has visited breweries all over the world, explained that he doesn't stock Anheuser-Busch beer because he doesn't like its business practices in the Czech Republic, home of pilsener beer and his favorite Rebel. Another reason, he said, is because it takes its water from the Mississippi, unlike City Brewery, which uses artesian wells under its plant.

"The beer you drink here today they'll bottle tomorrow in St. Louis," Padesky said.

Outside his Pearl Street bar, people still were sitting at sidewalk tables, enjoying the evening and drinking — except they were drinking coffee, not beer.

Maybe we left too early, or maybe La Crosse has calmed down even more than we thought. But no matter what, it'll always have its reputation.

Trip Tips: La Crosse

Getting there: It's a three-hour drive from the Twin Cities. Amtrak's Empire Builder  also serves La Crosse; from points west, it arrives at around 10:47 a.m. and departs La Crosse at around 7:14 p.m., www.amtrak.com.

Accommodations: The Radisson, Courtyard by Marriott, Holiday Inn and GrandStay Residential Suites are closest to Riverside Park.

The Guest House Motel is on South Fourth Street, three blocks from City Brewery. Its rooms are comfortable, and there's a breakfast cafe. Summer rates are $62.50-$75.50 including tax, 10 percent less with an AAA card. 1-800-274-6873, www.guesthousemotel.com.

The Celtic Inn B&B is well located on Cass Street, $85-$125, 1-877-870-0020, www.celticbb.com. Also on Cass Street, the Bentley-Wheeler B&B includes two historic houses, $135-$175, 877-889-8585, www.bentley-wheeler.com.

South of town, the 1917 Prairie-style Wilson Schoolhouse Inn is a lovely two-bedroom cottage with a well-equipped kitchen and living area, $120-$150 for two. 1-608-787-1982, www.wilsonschoolhouseinn.com. Farther along U.S. 14-61, the Four Gables B&B has three rooms that rent for $60-$95, 1-608-788-7958.

There's camping at Goose Island, three miles south of downtown, 1-608-788-7018, www.co.la-crosse.wi.us, and at Pettibone Park Resort, on Barron Island across the Cass Street Bridge, 1-800-738-8426.

Dining: Piggy's and the Freighthouse, both along the river, are longtime favorites. Overlooking Riverside Park, The Waterfront has an extensive  menu of seafood Fayze's on Fourth Street has a bakery and is a good place for breakfast and lunch.

At Fifth Avenue South and King Street, Hackberry's Bistro over the People's Food Co-op uses fresh, seasonal ingredients to make such dishes as paella, wild mushroom ravioli and sixteen-spice chicken breast with pumpkinseed-cilantro sauce. It's open daily for lunch and dinner, Fridays-Sundays for brunch. There's often live music on Fridays. 608-784-5798. 608-784-57980 60784-57988-784-5798

Nightlife: Concerts, plays and national touring shows perform at Viterbo College, Pump House Regional Arts Center, UW-La Crosse Center for the Arts and the La Crosse Center; check the events at www.explorelacrosse.com.

2008 events: June 18 to Aug. 13, River City Water Ski show, 7 p.m. Wednesdays at Airport Beach. July 2-6, Riverfest in Riverside Park. Aug. 8-10, Irishfest on the Southside Festival Grounds and Great River Jazz Festival, indoors at La Crosse Center. Aug. 22-24, Great River Folk Festival on UW-La Crosse campus. Sept. 26-Oct. 4, Oktoberfest.

River cruises: The Julia Belle Swain offers tours from mid-June to mid-October, some of them overnights to Winona and Prairie du Chien, 800-815-1005, www.juliabelle.com. The La Crosse Queen, a smaller paddlewheeler, also offers cruises from Riverside Park, 608-784-8523, www.greatriver.com/laxqueen.

Brewery tours: City Brewery offers hourlong tours, generally noon-3 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through May, then Monday-Saturday through October. For details, call 608-785-4283, www.citybrewery.com.

Trolley rides: From June 10 through August, the Historic La Crosse Trolley and a guide from the La Crosse County Historical Society will take passengers on a 1˝-hour tour from Riverside Park at 1 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and also at 11 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Tickets are $7, $5 for youths 6-17. Reservations are recommended, 608-789-7350, www.lacrossetrolley.com.

Information: 800-658-9424, www.explorelacrosse.com.

Last updated on October 22, 2008