La Crosse County ( ) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. At the 2020 census, the county's population was 120,784. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is the city of La Crosse. La Crosse County is included in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area with a population of 170,341 and is the most populous county on Wisconsin's western border.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (5.9%) is water.

Major highways

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 states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

* U.S. Highway 14 * U.S. Highway 53 * U.S. Highway 61 * Highway 16 (Wisconsin) * Highway 33 (Wisconsin) * Highway 35 (Wisconsin) * Highway 108 (Wisconsin) * Highway 157 (Wisconsin) * Highway 162 (Wisconsin)

Railroads

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

La Crosse station La Crosse station is an Amtrak intercity train station in La Crosse, Wisconsin, served by the daily ''Borealis (train), Borealis'' and ''Empire Builder''. The station was built in 1926–27 by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railr ...

Buses

* La Crosse MTU *

Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit or SMRT is a commuter bus system serving the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. It provides four routes which serve Crawford County, La Crosse County, Monroe County and Vernon County. It was recognized by Wisco ...

Airport

* LSE - La Crosse Regional Airport

Adjacent counties

* Trempealeau County - northwest * Jackson County - northeast * Monroe County - east * Vernon County - south * Houston County, Minnesota - southwest * Winona County, Minnesota - west

Climate

La Crosse County's location in the United States'

upper midwest The Upper Midwest is a northern subregion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon, the region is usually defined to include the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wi ...

gives the area a

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm to hot summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in central and eastern parts of the three northern-tier continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), typi ...

. The warmest month of the year is July, when the average high temperature is , with overnight low temperatures averaging . January is the coldest month, with high temperatures averaging , with the overnight low temperatures around .

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, the population was 120,784. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 52,774 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 88.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4.6% Asian, 1.7%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.4% Native American, 0.9% from other races, and 4.4% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.5%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. According to 2014–2018 ACS estimates, the

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

was $55,479 and the median family income was $67,388. Males had a median income of $48,675 and females $38,714. The per capita income was $26,065. About 9.1% of families and 10.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.2% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over. At the 2010 census, there were 114,638 people, 46,137 households and 27,373 families residing in the county. The

was . There were 46,137 housing units at an average density of . The racial make up was 92.1%

, 1.4%

, 0.4% Native American, 4.1% Asian, 0.00%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.3% from other races, and 1.6% from two or more races. 0.92% of the population were

or Latino of any race. 38.9% were of German, 20.3% Norwegian and 7.9% Irish ancestry. In 2017, there were 1,188 births, giving a general fertility rate of 47.9 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the fifth lowest rate out of all 72 Wisconsin counties.

Government

* Board Chair: Monica Kruse *

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

: Tim Gruenke (D) *

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

: John Siegel (D) *

County Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keepin ...

: Ginny Dankmeyer (D) * County Treasurer: Amy Twitchell (D) * Register of Deeds: Robin Kadrmas (D) * Board of Supervisors: (29 members) (D Majority) * County Administrator: Jane Klekamp

Politics

La Crosse County has voted for the Democratic nominee in every presidential election since 1988. The

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

ranked La Crosse County as one of Wisconsin's most Democratic counties. As a result of the 2020 presidential election, La Crosse County continued its Democratic trend by about 4% with a 13% lead over Republicans. In the

2022 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2022, with the exception of absentee balloting. During this U.S. midterm election, which occurred during the term of president Joe Biden, all 435 seats in ...

Democrats won every contested race in La Crosse County and flipped the Sheriff's race for the first time in recent history. La Crosse County is within the

Wisconsin State Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after those o ...

district 32, represented by Brad Pfaff (D). It also contains

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Assembly is controlled by the Republican ...

districts 95 Jill Billings (D) and 94 Steve Doyle (D). Democrats also hold a majority of seats on the La Crosse County Board of Supervisors.

Communities

Cities

* La Crosse (county seat) * Onalaska

Villages

* Bangor * Holmen * Rockland * West Salem

Towns

* Bangor * Barre *

Burns Burns may refer to: Astronomy * 2708 Burns, an asteroid * Burns (crater), on Mercury People * Burns (surname), list of people and characters named Burns ** Burns (musician), Scottish record producer Places in the United States * Burns, ...

* Campbell * Farmington * Greenfield *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

* Medary * Onalaska * Shelby * Washington

Census-designated places

* Brice Prairie, part of the Town of Onalaska and an urban reserve area of the City of Onalaska * French Island * St. Joseph

Unincorporated communities

* Barre Mills *

* Burns Corners * Burr Oak * Council Bay * Medary * Middle Ridge * Midway *

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

* Newberg Corners * Shelby * Stevenstown * West La Crosse

References

External links

La Crosse County

La Crosse County Health and Demographic Data

La Crosse County map
from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation {{Coord, 43.91, -91.11, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-WI_source:UScensus1990 1851 establishments in Wisconsin Wisconsin counties on the Mississippi River Populated places established in 1851