Gund Brewery Soft Drink Advertisement

Image Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Abigail Wollam

Catalog Number: 2011.014.002

The Gund Brewery advertisement shown here is an example of the company’s struggle to cope with the monumental societal change known as Prohibition.

By 1920, after Congress passed the Volstead Act, manufacturing and selling alcoholic drinks was illegal in the United States.

The ban on alcoholic beverages was championed by those hoping to rid society of social ills such as alcoholism and family violence. Prohibition was presented as a cure for the public. This movement was also motivated by political factors and anti-German sentiment.

Decades before Prohibition was put in place, John Gund began brewing beer in La Crosse. The company operated in La Crosse from its establishment in 1854 to 1920, when Prohibition and internal issues forced the company to close.

At its peak, Gund Brewing’s best-selling beer, Peerless, sold 600,000 barrels in one year.

When Prohibition was put in place, Gund Brewing tried to rebrand its company and moved from manufacturing alcoholic beverages to producing soft drinks.

The advertisement pictured here shows people of different ages enjoying Gund’s newest creation, Gund’s Peerless Beverage, “the Everyday Soft Drink.”

In fact, this advertisement uses a theme that Gund Brewing had used successfully in beer advertisements, namely that its product is enjoyed by people of all ages and is appropriate at every stage of life.

The three couples portrayed are a young pair courting in a canoe, a more mature and formally dressed couple dining out, and finally, in the center scene, we see Grandma pouring Grandpa and herself big glasses of Gund’s Beverage.

His book and her knitting basket help to set a domestic scene, and the lighting suggests they are seated by the fireplace. This was a drink that could be enjoyed by all, that was “unusually palatable and refreshing” and invoked scenes of peace and tranquility.

The advertisement shows Gund’s attempt at coping with the instability that Prohibition had brought to a company that specialized in alcoholic beverages.

Unfortunately, Gund Brewing’s efforts at adapting were not enough to keep the company afloat during Prohibition. Not long after the Volstead Act went into effect, Gund Brewing went under and closed in 1920.

However, Gund Brewing, and this advertisement, are important pieces of La Crosse’s history and show how businesses in La Crosse tried to cope with a rapidly changing world.

This artifact was donated to La Crosse County Historical Society in 2011 by Tye Schwalbe.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 24, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Bobcats Jersey

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Ken Brekke

Catalog Number: 2002.008.01

They were the coolest cats in town from 1996 to 2001.

Being the best basketball players in any town is always a big deal, and that is exactly what the members of the La Crosse Bobcats were

They played in the Continental Basketball Association, and their home games were in the La Crosse Center, the largest buckets arena in town. They were the best basketball talent this side of the NBA, and their uniforms featured the team colors of red, purple and white.

One of those nylon jerseys was donated to the La Crosse County Historical Society in 2002 by Kenneth Jenkerson.

The jersey features the name Gostomski in large red letters on the back, along with the number 25, which is also on the front. Local businessman Mike Gostomski was one of the team’s co-owners, along with La Crosse banker Bill Bosshard. Bill’s wife, Diane, was the team’s general manager.

Don Zierden served as the head coach of the Bobcats during their first two years of existence. He was followed as head coach by Mike Mashak, Dennis Johnson and Bill Klucas.

The Bobcats didn’t have a winning record in any of their five seasons, and the team folded about halfway through the scheduled 2000-2001 season when the Continental Basketball Association went bankrupt.

The Bobcats, who were the Chicago Rockers before moving to La Crosse, attracted decent crowds before going out of business, according to Art Fahey, director of the La Crosse Center.

“People enjoyed them,” he recalls. “They had the regulars coming in.”

The Bobcats were the second CBA team in La Crosse, as the Catbirds played in the La Crosse Center from 1985 through 1994. The Bobcats “didn’t quite catch on” like the Catbirds, Fahey notes.

The Bobcats roster include two names familiar to Wisconsin basketball fans — Sam Okey, who played for a prep school in Cassville and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jarrod Lovette, who played for Blair-Taylor High School and Marquette University.

The city of La Crosse dedicated a time capsule in 2006, and many objects from the city’s 150-year history were placed in the capsule, which was buried under a marble slab.

Those who open that capsule during the city’s bicentennial celebration in 2056 will find a Bobcats button and program from the team’s inaugural season.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 17, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Passenger Pigeon Net

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Abigail Wollam

Catalog Number: 1941.001.01

This net was once used in La Crosse to capture a species that no longer exists.

Passenger pigeons were once one of the most abundant species of birds in North America. They would fly in huge flocks as a method of protection against predators.

Unfortunately, this survival strategy ultimately played a part in the rapid decline in the species’ population in the late 19th century: The large groups in which passenger pigeons traveled created easy targets for hunters looking to nab some birds.

An abundant source of food, the pigeons were killed in massive numbers.

They were shot down and trapped with nets like the one pictured.

Passenger pigeons were hunted so heavily that it was not long before their population began to dwindle. By the late 19th century, this species was rapidly heading toward extinction.

As their numbers declined, the public debated the cause. Some cited disease as a possible explanation. However, it soon became clear that human behavior was the critical factor.

And because there was little to no effort made to save the species, the last passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.

The last passenger pigeon, Martha, was then frozen and shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for preservation. She now resides in the National Museum of Natural History and represents one of the many species that have gone extinct as a result of human actions.

While the extinction of the passenger pigeon is mostly remembered as a striking example of how human intervention can permanently alter our environment, it also played an important role in the history of environmentalism in the U.S.

During the time of the passenger pigeons, the ideas of environmentalism and conservation were still in their infancy. The pigeons’ decline and extinction helped motivate the fledgling movement. Efforts surrounding the conservation of birds at the time the passenger pigeon was going extinct ultimately led to the signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918.

This net, and the accompanying “beater,” were donated to the La Crosse County Historical Society in August 1941 by Lottie Smith, and is a visual reminder of the direct and indirect ways in which Coulee Region residents interact with the natural world around them.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 10, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.