2025 Programs & Experiences

Summer Trolley Tours

Historic Trolley Tours are returning this summer, offering guests air-conditioned trolley bus tours guided by our local historians.

Mansions & Memories is a 2.5-hour exploration of La Crosse's most significant homes, including step-offs at the historic Hixon House and Castle La Crosse. 

Offered on Saturdays: June 14th & 28th, July 12th & 26th, August 9th & 30th.

Limited-Time Exhibition

Embroidered Narratives: The Hmong Journey through Story Cloths commemorates the 50th anniversary of Hmong resettlement in the United States and illustrates the history of the Hmong and Hmong Americans through various narratives, including folktales, traditional events, daily life in the mountain villages of Laos, the Secret War, and resettlement.

The exhibit is free and open to the public, now through June 29, at the La Crosse Area Heritage Center Museum at 506 Main Street, thanks to a grant from the City of La Crosse Arts Board. 

LCHS is proud to partner with Dr. Vincent Her and student Yia Vue from UWL's Archaeology & Anthropology Department and La Crosse Hmong Cultural and Community Center to share and elevate the important historical stories of our Hmong friends and neighbors. 

Pop-Up Exhibition

As part of La Crosse’s Annual Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at Riverside Park, we invite you to a one-day pop-up exhibit highlighting the lives and legacies of Black leaders and changemakers with roots in our community. Discover the first modern Black Olympian, the first Black Presidential Candidate, and their connection to our community.

Limited-Time Exhibition

Reflections of La Crosse: Marion Biehn’s Painted World invites visitors to step into the city’s past through the eyes of Marion Cape Biehn (1911–1992), a beloved local artist who spent decades capturing the homes, storefronts, nature scenes, and civic landmarks of La Crosse in luminous watercolors and oils.

Known for her deep connection to place and her ability to preserve fleeting moments in time, Biehn’s work offers both artistic beauty and historical insight. Each piece is a quiet tribute to the city’s evolving landscape and nostalgia, reminding us not only what La Crosse once looked like, but how it felt to live there. This special exhibition will showcase approximately 20 oil and watercolor paintings from

LCHS’s permanent collection and private collections. Sponsored by State Bank Financial, the exhibit will run from July 9 to October 5, 2025.

Immersive Cemetery Tours

Join us for an immersive walking tour through historic Oak Grove Cemetery, where theatrical performances bring to life the stories of our city’s past. This year’s theme, "Industry Fueled by Nature," will explore nature-based industries like quarrying, lumbering, and clamming and our community’s early conservation advocates.

Saturday, September 20, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm.

Tickets will go on sale in August.

Fall Lecture

In recent years islands and sandbars along the Wisconsin River have hosted ever-growing numbers of Greater Sandhill Cranes as they prepare to depart for their wintering areas. Flocks of upwards of 10,000 birds converge on the stretch of the river above and below the Aldo Leopold’s Shack each fall. That’s a large proportion of the cranes that now nest in Wisconsin. Why has there been such an impressive resurgence in the crane population since Aldo Leopold worried about its impending extirpation 80 years ago? Professor Stan Temple will review the remarkable recovery of Midwestern sandhill cranes, describe their migratory behavior and discuss some of the recent controversies, such as crane hunting, that have attended their new status as an abundant bird.