Grandad Bluff (also Granddad Bluff) is a bluff on the east side of

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

. It is approximately above the surrounding land and above sea level. Bliss Road provides access to the bluff. A park shelter in a fenced-off area atop the bluff provides visitors with a view of La Crosse. It contains a panoramic photo of La Crosse taken in 2004, with annotations of La Crosse landmarks. Locations visible from the bluff include the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, bluffs in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, and

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

Geology

The landscape has a geomorphically young appearance because of its

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

history. The Mississippi River probably did not occupy this course before the Pleistocene. The bluffs along this portion of the Mississippi River consist of

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

of the Prairie du Chien Group capping

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. Grandad Bluff is a classic mesa, as are all the bluffs along the river.

History

The land comprising much of Grandad Bluff was first purchased from the state by Judge George Gale in July 1851. Between 1851 and 1912, there were 83 transfers of the property. The bluff was used as a source of construction materials, and its limestone was quarried for many years. The bluff was to be sold for large-scale quarrying, however the La Crosse residents were outraged by the plans. To save the bluff from ruin, Ellen Hixon and her son Joseph, a prominent La Crosse family, purchased the land in 1909. The family held the property in trust until 1912 when the land was donated as a park to the city of La Crosse. A group of residents, led by Ellen Hixon, raised $15,000 to construct roads and purchase more land around the bluff. The area below Grandad Bluff became the center of

Hixon Forest The name Hixon, Hixson or Hixton may refer to: Hixon * Hixon (surname) * Hixon, British Columbia, an unincorporated community in Canada * Hixon, Staffordshire, a village and a civil parish in England **RAF Hixon, a Royal Air Force station in Hixon, ...

, which continues to serve as a popular hiking area. In 1928 there was a movement to change the name of the bluff to Granddad Mountain, and to name the series of bluffs along the Mississippi River "The Mississippi Mountain Range".William L. Doudna, "Bluff or Mountain?" ''La Crosse Tribune'', July 10, 1928. A shelter was constructed in Grandad Bluff Park in 1938 by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

using stone quarried from the south side of the bluff. In 1941, a flagpole was erected by the La Crosse chapter of

Reserve Officers Association The ROA (d/b/a Reserve Organization of America) is a professional association of commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, former officers, enlisted and spouses of the uniformed services of the United States, primarily with the Reserve an ...

using money raised by schoolchildren. Eleven years later, in 1952, a rustic split rail fence of native oak was constructed, along with two new picnic areas with parking. The shelter was wired with electricity in 1954, and public restrooms were constructed about ten years later. A new pump house was built in 1976. Landscaping projects were completed during the 1980s, and a new flagpole was erected by the La Crosse

Jaycees The United States Junior Chamber, also known as the Jaycees, JCs or JCI USA, is a leadership training, service organization and civic organization for people between the ages of 18 and 40. It is a branch of Junior Chamber International (JCI) ...

in 1994.

Since 1929, the La Crosse Skyrockers organization has conducted a fireworks show from atop Grandad Bluff at midnight on New Year's Eve. The show is patterned after the New Year's fireworks show that takes place over Pikes Peak in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

References

External links

City of Lacrosse Parks Department page on Grandad Park

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060902020335/http://csumc.wisc.edu/gallery/album37 Photos of Grandad Bluff
Topographical Map of Grandad Bluff
{{coord, 43, 48, 51, N, 091, 12, 32, W, display=title Landforms of La Crosse County, Wisconsin La Crosse, Wisconsin Driftless Area Parks in Wisconsin Protected areas of La Crosse County, Wisconsin Mesas of the United States Works Progress Administration in Wisconsin