1930 Map of La Crescent

About this map

The Mississippi River corridor dominates this 1930 edition, showing the complex aquatic landscape before modern navigational locks transformed the Upper Mississippi. In this era, the river is a maze of backwaters and side channels including Dresbach Slough, French Slough, and Hammond Chute. The settlement of La Crosse is shown alongside North La Crosse and West La Crosse, positioned at the critical junction of the Black River and the main channel. The map illustrates a landscape defined by its river-and-rail economy, with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy and other major railroads tracing the shoreline. Inland, small rural hubs like New Amsterdam and Holmen are surrounded by a network of country schools such as Oak Grove Sch and Midway Sch, highlighting the distributed agricultural population of Onalaska and Holland townships.