FACT OR MYTH: Did Heileman start La Crosse’s Oktoberfest just to sell beer?

As La Crosse’s Oktoberfest gets underway, we look back on how it all started — and Brad Quarberg reveals the festival wasn’t actually a secret ploy for G. Heileman Brewery to sell beer. In fact, the brewery once ran the numbers on how much beer fest-goers actually...

New this Morning: The Elvis Explosion is underway

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Crying all the time? Can't help falling in love? Experience all the emotions and thrills at the 29th annual Elvis Explosion this weekend in La Crosse.

In A Small Wisconsin Town, This Country Diner Keeps Regulars Coming Back For Homestyle Breakfasts

Some of the best breakfasts hide down quiet country roads, far from the busy strip malls and franchise signs. Out in the Wisconsin countryside sits a small diner where the coffee stays hot, the plates come loaded, and the staff greet you like family the moment you sit down. Regulars...

Elvis impersonators compete for $25,000 prize at La Crosse Center

The Brief

Coulee Arts opens new location with community events, creative activities

The Brief

Community puppet build this weekend in preparation for the 14th Annual Harvest Parade

VIROQUA, Wis.—People are encouraged to participate in the Community Puppet Building Workshop this weekend at the WDRT building, 311 S. Main, in Viroqua, from 12:00-4:00 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 13, in preparation for the 14th Annual Viroqua Harvest Parade. All ages are welcome. The purpose of the parade...

Allen Media renews ABC affiliation agreement for seven stations

The Walt Disney Company and local television broadcaster Allen Media Group has reached a new deal that extends the carriage of ABC network programming on seven Allen Media-owned stations. The agreement covers KITV (Channel 4, ABC) in Honolulu, KEZI (Channel 9, ABC) in Eugene, KDRV (Channel 12, ABC) in Medford,...

The Tiny Minnesota Town Hiding An Owl Museum That Deserves Way More Attention

You could spend a lifetime exploring Minnesota and still stumble across something that makes you pull over, squint at a building, and say out loud to nobody in particular, “Wait, is that real?”. The International Owl Center in Houston, Minnesota is exactly that kind of discovery, and it deserves...

Trempealeau Refuge to auction trapping units

Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge will offer trapping units for muskrat and beaver during the Wisconsin 2026-2027 trapping season. Bidding for the units will take place on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the refuge Outdoor Wonders Learning Center building, located next to the refuge office. There are 12...

Prairie Moon Nursery Began With a ‘Neighborhood’, Now Offers Native Plants Across North America

For more than 175 years, native plant communities across North America diminished as agriculture, cities and industry expanded. Prairie remnants survived in railroad rights-of-way, ditches and on land that wasn’t farmed, but some species became rare, or even lost. In the 1980s a few visionary Minnesotans began collecting, growing...

La Crosse celebrates chimney swifts during migration with Swift Night Out event

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to host Refuge Week in September

NECEDAH – This year, Necedah will be celebrating National Wildlife Refuge Week in September rather than the traditional time during the second week of October. There are expanded offerings this year, both off and on the refuge. Events are free and open to the public. The week will begin...

This Unassuming Wisconsin Eatery Has Been Serving The Most Legendary Homemade Pies For Decades

Nobody warns you about the Norske Nook in Osseo, Wisconsin, and that’s honestly a little unfair. You find out about it the way most people find out about truly great things, through a friend who mentions it too casually, like it’s not a big deal, like they didn’t just change your life with a single sentence.

We Tried These 11 Amish Restaurants In Wisconsin And Found Some Memorable Meals

Wisconsin’s rolling farmland is home to a surprising number of Amish and Amish-inspired restaurants that focus on doing simple food exceptionally well. These are the kinds of places where the pie case is the first thing you notice walking in the door. Menus lean heavily on roasted meats, fresh...

Tourism gives towns along Mississippi River a reboot

TREMPEALEAU, Wis. — On an idyllic summer evening at the Trempealeau Hotel, the Mississippi River is as much a draw as the musical act that graces its outdoor stage. If concert-goers gathered on the hotel lawn are lucky – and they often are – they'll get to see a sorbet sky before the sun tucks behind the bluffs, and a train thundering through with a horn-blast hello. The hotel has watched over the river since 1888. Amy Werner and Jörg Droll, who have owned the hotel since 2012, have seen a surge of interest in their part of the river since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in outdoor recreation opportunities. The village of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, with a population of about 1,900, has leaned into the phenomenon. Just as the river's path has changed over time, so have communities changed and adapted. The Mississippi was a vital resource for Indigenous people, a source of employment for fishermen, trappers, boat captains and builders of the locks and dams , and more recently, the main attraction on the Great River Road, a drive that draws millions of Americans every year. Along this segment of the Mississippi in western Wisconsin, river communities are exploring different

La Crosse Labor Day picnic recognizes workers and labor movement

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Community members gathered at Copeland Park on Labor Day for La Crosse's annual Labor Day Picnic, a local tradition that dates back 135 years.

Parade set to celebrate history of workers, labor, in La Crosse

Local labor unions, their families, and supporters plan to show their support on Monday as the country celebrates Labor Day. La Crosse’s annual parade begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Gillette and Kane Streets on the city’s north side. It turns south onto Caledonia Street until it reaches St. Cloud Street, where it goes west before ending at Copeland Park.