Prescott always a busy river town

"Yup, Prescott sure is a river town" is the consensus of the "river watchers" at the levee park. The river watching park is a little spot of land at the junction of two of Wisconsin's important rivers, the St. Croix and Mississippi, which form much of the state's western border. Prescott is the westernmost town in Wisconsin.

And if you listen closely to the old-timers, the sense of river importance grows and a new respect is gained for the waters rollin in front of you.

"When I was a kid we'd dig into mounds on the hill, put the bones in a bucket and take them to school. Always got sent home. Every boy ran around with a pocketful of teeth. Had fun 'sailing' the pieces of pottery over the hill, too."

Little boys, unaware of archaeology, history, or even desecration at the time, now wonder if the mounds were part of the mound builders society in the river valley before 1200 A. D.

"I heard the 'old' old-timers tell about going down below town here in the sands when the river was low, finding arrowheads. Kids sold them to tourists on the boats. Guess must've been a battle here once."

Sure was. About 1755 there were more than 300 lodges of Dakota camped here for summer games. The Ojibwa planned a surprise attack at dawn and took 350 scalps.

"Wonder if it's so that Prescott could have become the Twin Cities. Sure glad it ain't."

Officers at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, also had the same thought. In 1827 they pooled resources and claimed land at this junction site. In the spring of 1839, Philander Prescott wrote that he had "nothing to do and accepted their offer" to begin a trading post and settlement here. But treaties, land titles, and other legalities delayed settlement and people continued up the Mississippi to settle St. Paul and Minneapolis.

"Remember that old ferry building, was it tore down or burned? Sure is hard to remember what happens to all them old buildings."

Philander Prescott was granted a license Oct. 4, 1840 to run a ferry across the St. Croix at its mouth. The ferry was the communication link with Minnesota until 1922 when the U. S. Hy. 10 bridge spanning the St. Croix was built. The bridge has a center lift section which allows boats to pass beneath.

"Hard to think of all the people who came right to this place in the old days. I heard every boat brought up settlers, had so many here had to set up kitchens to feed 'em all."

Beginning in 1854, the levee at Prescott was booming. The area was opening for settlement and the "pioneer superhighway - the river - was the best means of travel for people and goods. Hotels, homes and warehouses were filled with settlers waiting to move on and establish farms in the interior.

"Yah know when I sat here watchin' these old rivers, I kin almost see one of them big old boats comin' up the river, smooth as silk. Just that big old paddlewheel a-swishin' away. When that cap'n blew the whistle, every kid in town knew what boat was a-comin' in here. Every blessed boat had its own peculiar whistle.

"My old neighbor used to tell about them high wooden sidewalks in town, kids crawled under them and found lots of money. Specially after the lumberjacks was in town, that was good pickin's. Another thing, if there was a wind blowin' and the rafts couldn't go downriver, there'd be as high as 300 men stomping around town and boarding here, waitin' to go on."

River levels fluctuated greatly until the present system of locks and dams was completed on the Mississippi in 1940. Many times steamboats came as far as Prescott and at low water couldn't continue their up-river journey. However, with building of the lock and dam system on the Mississippi, there is now a stable channel.

"Remember how the old folks would complain about us guys sneaking cigars and smoking in the ice house. Didn't especially like it when we went swimming in our birthday suits right up from the levee either."

Ice houses were another prominent feature of a river town in pre-refrigerator days. Men were busy all winter cutting and packing ice and the supply was used all year by neighboring communities.

"When I was a kid, your folks either had a farm or you 'went to work on the river'. You know one time there was 15 guys in town with a pilot's license, more than any other town on the upper river. Wonder how many of them is left on the river."

Quite a few. Today Prescott people 'on the river' total 16 and range from a woman cook to the vice president of a towing corporation. The proportion is down from 25 years ago when 24 men of the 850 population worked on the river; now the proportion is 16 out of 2,662 residents.

"My mother used to sit with the folks on the hill Sunday afternoon. Spent the whole time visiting and watching the boats go by. Said there'd be 12 to 15 in a day."

River watching is still a pastime. Everything from the Delta Queen, only remaining overnight passenger boat on the river; huge towboats pushing barges the length of the Mississippi from Minneapolis to New Orleans; down to adventuresome canoeists, pass the Prescott waterfront.

"Remember them old excursion boats, had lost of fun. Best one was the fire department's, they'd get the whole town out, brass band and all and spend the whole day traveling and having a picnic. Sure like to have them again."

Could be, even excursions will "come back". An increasing number of boats are being built, or remodeled into excursion - type craft, some as floating theaters. As yet, there has been no replacement for the "Miss Prescott" which was docked here several seasons and chartered for use by large groups.

"It was them trains and automobiles that sure changed this river town. Stores all moved up off the levee, had to get up on a main street, nothin' to look at but the stores across the street, sure wasn't the excitement you had on the river.

"And trains. Sure was a sorry day when them big old boats quit runnin' Seems people been in a hurry ever since."

"Well, now, I dunno. Notice more and more people are coming back tot he river. Look at all them fancy homes along the river, years ago you couldn't give those lots away. Now people move here - they want the view."

"The river" explains Prescott's origin, growth, and in a sense, revival as a city.

And, to many, Prescott is still a "river town."

- Mary Beeler

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.