Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Perrot State Park
During the winter of 1685-1686, fur trader Nicholas Perrot wintered at the confluence of
the Trempealeau and Mississippi Rivers; Hopewell burial mounds at what's known as
Per-
rot State Park
beat him by five millennia. Known as the Trempealeau Bluffs, the crown of
the ridge swells to 500 feet above the bottomland of the Mississippi River.
Brady's Bluff is the crown jewel of the four primary bluffs, a towering 520-foot terrace
rising steeply above the floodplain. Climbing up Brady's Bluff is essentially a sweaty
Geology101;you'llpass600millionyearsofgeologicalstratification.TrempealeauMoun-
tain though, that landmark beckoning to Native and settler alike, is even more intriguing. A
fragmented partofthebluffline, itisnowa384-foot-highisland sitting intheTrempealeau
River bay.
The Great River State Trail
tangentially scrapes the northern park boundary.
Canoeists can even follow an established canoe trail through Trempealeau Bay.
Whatever you do, do not leave the bay and head out into the river, unless you've got super-
human strength.
Reservations(888/947-2257,
www.wisconsinstateparks.com
,
$10;campsites$14andup
for non-residents; $10 daily admission) are necessary for prime riverside campsites.
Fromadistance,it'simpossibletomisstheimposingbluffsalongtheMississippifloodplain
abovetinyTrempealeau.Soeye-catchingweretheythattheNativeAmericans,French,dis-
placed Acadians, and the odd Kentuckian referred to the “bump” at the northern end of the
bluff line—now, of course, Trempealeau Mountain—either as “Soak Mountain” or “Moun-
tain in the Water.”
Even William Cullen Bryant was an early admirer of the local landscape. Early settlers
were no less enamored; a local minister spent feverish years honestly trying to prove that
Trempealeau was the site of the Garden of Eden.
Lock and Dam 6
in Trempealeau is one of the best sites to get an operations-level
gander at a dam. From the tower right over the water, you could almost hop aboard a
passing boat. The lock and dam, including an earth dam extending all the way to the Min-
nesota shore, completed in 1936, cost an astonishing $5 million.
South of Trempealeau you'll find a chain of seven spring-fed lakes, two in yet another
fish and wildlife refuge. This is the area for canoeing, and assorted private cabins on stilts
over the marshy waters are available; most are decidedly low-key.
