Prairie du Chien – The Experience

When an outsider thinks of Wisconsin, they might think of endless flat expanses of farmland, dairy barns everywhere, and German ancestry galore, but to me, it’s much more than that. The best way I can summarize our state’s heritage is in three main phases – Native American, French, and German. Obviously we have a rich Swedish and Nordic influence in several parts, as well as English and Polish, and [insert your preferred European ancestral heritage here] but for the main part, those three are the biggest. But when you inform people of the French part, they are often unaware of how much of an impact French history actually played a role in our state. From the first white documented explorers to the first aspects of business in this state, the French Connection (great movie, btw) is strong, and nowhere is that more evident than in Prairie du Chien.

I had the opportunity for an extended weekend in Prairie du Chien recently, and I have to be honest I wasn’t even really sure myself what to expect. Of all the places in this state I’ve explored, the southwestern portion is my least frequented. I went in with the bare minimums of knowledge and I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for me even choosing this place in the first place was how little I knew about it. I knew it was Wisconsin’s second oldest city, I knew it had a large French influence, and I knew it was in the driftless region. And that was… pretty much it. So I did my due diligence and researched the ever-loving HECK out of it. Spent a solid two weeks or so pouring over maps, googling “things to do”, and reading up on facts about the city. I don’t go anywhere without a plan, and this was no exception. As I’ve said in the past, I’ll spare you all the history and geography of the city on this post and save that for next week for those that are interested. In two weeks, I’ll post a “TL;DR” version, but for today, I’m going to go over the experience in case you might consider ever coming here.

Right off the bat I want to address two themes for Prairie du Chien… POTENTIAL (realized or otherwise), and FRIENDLIEST CITY ON EARTH. The vibe immediately was how nice everyone was, from the motel manager to the tour guides to the random strangers (locals, of course) sitting down next to us by the river and talking to us at Walmart. I think I commented at least once per day on how nice everyone was. The city itself, despite being the second oldest in the state, has so much unrealized potential. And maybe I’m out of line here… I don’t live there, and do locals really care about the opinions of outsiders? I don’t have a great answer, but it just felt a little different. Not in a negative way, by any means. I’m planning on coming back here at least one more time. There was just something… different about the city that I can’t quite put my finger on. Anyways, let’s focus on the positive first… how incredibly friendly everyone in this city was.

From the minute we were greeted at our motel, the friendliness was there. You might say, well Andy, that’s normal for a business owner to be friendly to his clients. Fair point, if that was the only insanely friendly interaction we had all weekend… which it definitely wasn’t. After checking in, we headed to Walmart for some basic supplies. An elderly man walking in at the same time as us went out of his way to compliment my sunglasses strap. MY SUNGLASSES STRAP, of all things. I get a lot of flack for this thing by the way. But this man complimented me on my style choice and we talked for a couple minutes. He was sincere and genuine, nothing but smiles and niceties on day one.

The very next day, after our tour of the Villa Louis we headed to a bar, The Depot, right on the river to sit on the patio and enjoy the sun. The Depot is located on Saint Feriole Island. They are situated on the river and across the street from a park that has live music every Thursday. We sat on the patio enjoying the weather when two locals asked (very politely I might add) if they could join us at our table (it was a table for 6 after all, and it also had the comfiest chairs available). They sat down and struck up a conversation. In the 10 minutes we shared the table with them, we talked about everything from fishing to the live music concerts to the city itself. I know the midwest has this cliche about nice people, but the people of Prairie du Chien have clearly made it their life’s work to enforce those ideals.

After our unexpected visit with the locals and two summer shandy’s later, our stomachs were rumbling and we went to get some food. Pizza sounded good so we headed downtown to Muddy Waters Pizza Pub. Inside we were greeted by, wait for it… one of the nicest restaurant owners we’ve ever encountered. It was like he could sense that in my mind I was starting to piece together the niceness of the city and it’s people and he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get the chance for any second thoughts. Oh and also, top tier pizza.

Friday we booked a Mississippi River boat tour, and guess what, our guide was also one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. From answering any and all questions to making sure the tour was meeting all our expectations, it was just an awesome experience. At this point you’re probably getting sick of hearing me use the word ‘nice’. It is after all the word kids use when forced to say something positive about someone else. In this case however, it fits the bill perfectly. If you visit this town, and you should, you will not be disappointed by the hospitality and friendliness of the locals. Seriously, not one bad experience with people, employees or locals alike.

I now want to address the other theme I mentioned at the beginning… potential. I understand small cities often don’t have the luxury that larger ones do of great and abundant things inside the city, but Prairie du Chien is the SECOND OLDEST CITY IN WI… how is it not bigger? Why are people not capitalizing on this unique aspect? The history alone should have this city at around 20k plus people. It has less than six thousand. And I cannot for the life of me understand why. It’s also on the Mississippi River, which that alone adds its own potential. PDC is at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, which makes it unique and important for many reasons as well. Dilapidated houses in some areas. Suburban-but-not-quite-suburban sprawl, to the point where things are just spread out too far in some places. The downtown has several vacant buildings. So much potential, especially when you consider that the two nicest hotels are located WITHIN downtown.

Prairie du Chien is just so quiet. And that’s not a bad thing, by any means. In fact I actually prefer that to my current situation in Sun Prairie. As I get older I like big crowds less and less. And at further risk of contradicting myself even further, at the very least Prairie du Chien seems like the perfect tourist spot. Whether that means filling the vacant buildings, condensing some of the neighborhoods, something needs to be done. Promote tourism! Promote nature recreation with the two rivers there! Promote road-trip visits with its historical aspects! And as I mentioned previously, maybe I’m out of line with this thinking. I’m an outsider… I didn’t talk to the locals about their hopes and dreams for the future of their city. So my perspective might be completely unwarranted. But, this is my blog so I’m going to add my opinion, keeping in mind I want only the best for this state, and everyone inside of it too.

During our boat tour of the river, it was evident how much more developed the two cities from the Iowa side you could see were. Clearly more money pumped into them than into PDC. But why? If you’re a fellow Wisconsinite and you want to vacation in our state, where are you going? Up north is a common spot, and so is Door County. Maybe MKE or Madison if you’re looking for that big city feel. If you have young kids perhaps The Dells is your spot. And of course, one of our many state parks and/or lakes all over the state for camping and fishing opportunities. Most people do not head west to the SW portion of the Mississippi River. I’m sure SOME families do, but it probably doesn’t crack the top 5 vacation destinations in this state. Now look to Iowa. I’m no Iowan, and so I’m certainly not as familiar with their vacation destinations and habits, but I can’t imagine they have the same opportunities as us. And if you are an Iowan reading this blog, please feel free to correct me, but I think I’m on to something here. They don’t have an “up north”, they don’t have a “door county”, or a “the dells”, and I didn’t spend a TON of research time on this, but they have a little over 65 lakes (only 34 being natural), so not nearly the amount of lake recreation opportunities as we do here in WI. So… if you’re an Iowan and you’re looking for some water recreation, where do you go? The rivers… Mississippi, Des Moines, Iowa, or Cedar, these are the major rivers. So if you see some nicer Iowa cities on the river compared to PDC, just realize our tourism dollars aren’t going to PDC, but in Iowa, they are going to those river cities.

It seems to me that what Prairie du Chien is missing the most is a nice museum to rival the quality found in Sturgeon Bay, Madison, or Milwaukee, that focuses on the history of not only Prairie du Chien itself, but the history of the French fur trade, how Prairie du Chien got to be the second oldest, it’s place in Wisconsin history and the connections to all three. Now, maybe Fort Crawford covers some of this, maybe it doesn’t. I guess I’ll find out at some point. Villa Louise offers up one quick snapshot in time, but doesn’t cover what I mentioned above. At the very least, adding a high quality museum would do wonders to the tourism aspect of the city. And before you get on me about my museum obsession, museums allow field trips, which gets kids coming back as they get older. They add education, and you get those interested in learning more about this state. It adds another thing to do in this area, which increases the chances someone will visit. This region of the state is so vastly different to the rest of the state. You have the Northwoods, you have the bay valley, the metro areas of Madison and Milwaukee, Door County, the central sands… SW Wisconsin has the the driftless region… some of the best views in the state with such unique and pretty scenery. It has the aspect of being occupied and used longer than any other part of the state other than GB. From mining to fur trading to farming to the Mississippi River connection… just so much unrealized potential. Put me on a commitee or something, I just want to see this part of the state get more recognition.

Alright rant over, let’s focus on a few more highlights. As always, I booked a rather cheap motel, for several reasons. 1) I’m a teacher, I don’t really make enough money to travel in luxury but also 2) The less you spend on lodging, the more you can spend on everything else. We stayed at The Prairie Voyager Motel. CHEAP. And I know what you’re thinking, you tend to get what you pay for, right? If it’s super cheap it has to be poor quality. Prairie du Chien is not a big city though, and it is not in an expensive area, so the cost of living is much cheaper than where I currently reside. However, it’s also a motel. It was beyond clean, didn’t have any bad smells that some of the cheaper hotels have, and was just a nice place. After all, we weren’t spending TONS of time inside anyways. The whole point is to get out and explore. And for that, staying at a fancy expensive place doesn’t really matter and isn’t worth it. The rooms are small, yes, but not cramped. The only negative I can say about this motel was the water pressure of the shower head… am I a wimp? Probably. Wait, definitely yes, but this still hurt. But I haven’t seen any other complaints about the water pressure when reading the reviews, so maybe this was unique to my room. Also, no coffee maker/tiny mini-fridge. We just brought an extra cooler with us (no big deal and doesn’t take up that much space) and brought our own small coffee maker. Not the end of the world, and again, for the price we were paying it’s not a big deal. There are two high end hotels in Prairie du Chien, but for less than half the total cost I’m fine with packing our own coffee maker and rushing my shower.

Let’s discuss food… I’m big into eating, and I’m even bigger into eating good food. Pun intended?? It is here we encountered highlight #1 of the trip… Ft. Mulligan’s Grillpub. Why is this a highlight you might ask? Literally the second best cheese curds in the entire state… that’s why. I mean it was plenty cheap, they had great cocktails (I recommend the Lemon Pound Cake), a good selection of beer, cheap food, huge selection of burgers, sandwiches, and wraps. Oh and did I mention the second best cheese curds in the state? I can’t get over that part if you can’t tell. The kind that melt in your mouth, not too dense, not super greasy… heaven in mouthful. Day two after a looonnngggg day of hiking, pizza was going to hit the spot. As mentioned above, we ate at Muddy Waters Pizza Pub. This pizza was top tier as well. Pizza is hard to mess up, I’ll give you that. But the crust? Phenomenal. Cheese? Perfect amount and flavor. Sauce? DANG dawg, it was legit. My only regret? I didn’t order more. I didn’t want to stop eating, it was that good. They make the pizza fresh after you order it, and you can see them making it. Everything was fresh, everything was delicious. After a long day of walking (a state park and a walking tour of the Villa Louis), the pizza hit the spot. I immediately posted another 5 star review for a restaurant in this city. I’m actually getting hungry right now as I write this thinking back to those cheese curds and this pizza.

We also had lunch one of the days at a small Mexican restaurant, Los Aztecas. Great nachos and great margaritas. Last but not least, Jones’ Black Angus Supper Club. The supper club culture in this state is bar none, and this supper club probably makes it into my top 5. The food was good, the drinks were good, the salad bar was really good, but what sets this place so high for me was the atmosphere. Classic supper club atmosphere. To me, there are a few things that just make me feel at home here in WI, and one of those is a supper club. There’s just something about walking into a dimly lit place, where the bar is nearly full with people having a nice drink, laughing, talking, Christmas lights strung up all over, and in that moment in time, some of the best fish and steak you’ve ever had. Because nothing else matters at the moment, it’s just you and the feeling of being right where you’re supposed to be. And that’s what Jones’ Black Angus does… reminds you you’re home. 10 stars.

The history of this city is the reason why we visited in the first place, and PDC has a few great places that help with this. Villa Louis and Fort Crawford are the two historical aspects of this town. We didn’t have time to do both, so Fort Crawford will have to wait until next time. Villa Louis was a great and if you’re at all interested in Wisconsin history, you should make time to come here. One of 11 State Historical Society Sites/Museums, Villa Louis is an Italian-style mansion that has been changed, added to, and occupied for over 150 years. Since Prairie du Chien is so much older than the rest of the state, it offers a look into the past of early EARLY Wisconsin. We booked a tour of the site, and it was definitely worth it. I am a history buff, but not that type of history. I prefer the ancient stuff… Pre-1500’s at the very latest. And although I do enjoy anything and everything about Wisconsin, I wasn’t expecting to be that engaged in the tour, nor was I expecting how cool it was to learn about the Dousman’s (the family that made the property famous) and that time period in Wisconsin. Worth the $15 for a guided tour. After our tour we were allowed to walk the grounds ourselves to see the rest of the historical sites on the property. Our tour guide was amazing and, get this, one of the friendliest people I’ve met. In addition to Villa Louis and Fort Crawford, the the Mississippi River boat tour had plenty of historical points along the tour, and like I mentioned above, the tour guide was great and knew anything and everything about the river and the history.

In terms of nature recreation, which should occupy at least one day of every trip you take, in my opinion, PDC has several opportunities here too. We’ll start with Wyalusing State Park. Wyalusing has to rank top 5 of state parks I’ve been to in terms of views and hiking. It is also probably one of the more difficult hikes, although you certainly don’t have to approach it like we did. We wanted to see it all and hiked around the entire park. There are quite a few low impact, little altitude-change trails, but our route took us over 800 feet in elevation throughout the hike. If you’re in shape and able to make the trek, I can’t recommend enough how awesome the entire hike actually was. We hiked a little over 6 miles around the perimeter of the park and got to see some awesome stuff. And the views? Absurd how good they were. Top 5 in the state. If you want to see some of the best parts of this state, Wyalusing must be visited. In addition to seeing this part of state by foot, we also needed to see it by water. The Mississippi River and its backwaters play such a large role in the city itself, so our tour of the river was important too in terms of not only the history, but nature. Maiden Voyage Tours was the tour company I booked and man oh man was it a good decision. Ironically enough, my parents just got back from a Mississippi River boat tour as well, theres in Winona, MN. After comparing our two we were both in agreement we got the better tour. Despite being an Iowan, the tour guide was a good guy (Ha, that was a joke. Of all our midwest neighbors I think I like Iowans the most). He was an awesome guide. Knew anything and everything you could want to know about the river. I was more focused on the nature aspect of the tour, and he was able to answer all my questions with ease. Another group on the tour was more interested in the historical aspects of the region and river, and he knew everything about that as well. I cannot recommend this company enough, and I will be pushing out their name to any and all who will listen. If you’re in the area, you’ve got to book a tour with them. If you’re interested in a river tour, you need to book a tour with them. It really is that simple. We were able to see birds I’ve NEVER seen in my lifetime. Baby eagle in a nest? That’s a new one for me, incredible. Prothonotary Warbler… a bird I didn’t even know existed until that moment in time, but we saw three and they are some of the prettiest birds I’ve ever seen. The information, the views, the relaxing nature of the tour itself… again, one day of a vacation should be designated to nature, and the tour of the river is worth it.

Finally, we spent the last day there traversing and traveling the driftless region under the guise of antique shopping and brewery visiting. I enjoy driving through the countryside to see this state, its why I’m making this blog, and driving through the driftless region has views unmatched. The views from the roadside in the driftless region are spectacular, and I think it needs to be on everyone’s bucket list at some point. Hopefully, one of you reading this is able to see this city for what it is, an undiscovered gem just waiting to be visited. Make it a weekend and plan it right, and you won’t be disappointed.