"Dark La Crosse Stories"
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Stemming from the "Dark La Crosse" stage show (2015-19), this podcast (2019-24) tells stories about the seedier side of La Crosse, Wisconsin's history.
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Links
- Watch & Listen: YouTube Playlist (all 67 episodes)
- A Viewer's Guide to Dark La Crosse Stories (via La Crosse Public Library)
- Winner of the 2025 Governor's Archives Award for Archival Innovation, awarded by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
featured Episodes:
Ep. 60: 1875 Circus Storm
An evening performance of Howe's Great London Circus descended into chaos as a raging summer storm moved through La Crosse in 1875.
Ep. 63: St. Mary's Boarding School
In 1883, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse opened the St. Mary's Indian School, a boarding school that was on the reservation of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians with the mission to convert Ojibwe children to Catholicism, a history the FSPA now must reconcile with the survivors and descendants of St. Mary's.
EP. 64: The Funeral Home Fight
What happens when an unsavory business opens in a historic home in the heart of an upper-class residential district?
EP. 66: The Rivoli's Blind Organist
The life and times of Walter Goetzinger, one of the most extraordinary musicians in La Crosse history, including a theater fire, a messy divorce, and his role in the erection of the Rivoli Theatre.
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"Dark La Crosse Stories" was created by La Crosse Public Library Archives, in collaboration with La Crosse Tribune, with music by Luke Thering.
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