WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK 1989-1990


Northwestern Railroad bridged the river at Winona in the 1870s. With the
decline in lumber rafting on the Mississippi at the turn of the century,
steam-
boats passed Winona less and less frequently and those docking at the city
primarily carried tourists, vacationers, and excursion traffic. Yet during
its
first 4 decades of growth, steamboats had served Winona well, carrying all
manner of passengers and cargoes in and out of port and guiding countless
log rafts to its sawmills. The steamboat transportation industry holds a
spe-
cial place in Winona's history for here lived well-known pilots and captains,
and fortunes were made in the business.
  While accounts of steamboating, lumbering, and wheat production tend to
dominate Winona's 19th century history, the city's longevity relates to other
needs it came to fulfill quite early as the seat of Winona County government
and the business, shopping, and service center for prosperous farming coun-
try. It has always had an industrial component, much of which has related
to
the processing of products of the farm. Even in the years of the Great De-
pression, its business community reported that much of the annual $3 million
payroll came directly or indirectly from the farms of its hinterland. One
of
today's industries, which dates almost from Winona's founding, is limestone
quarrying. Initially the plentiful limestone in the river bluffs produced
build-
ing materials for foundations, for finer buildings, and the material for
a large
lime kiln operation. Now Winona's limestone resources are well-known for
exceptionally fine building stone. The city remains the leading business
and
industrial center of southeastern Minnesota. It is also a center of higher
edu-
cation with Winona State University, the College of Saint Teresa, St. Mary's
College of Minnesota, and the Winona Technical Institute all located there.


'I


Mississippi River steamboats and barges, moored for the Winona Grocers' Excursion,
about
1890. Photograph by Gerhard Gesell. (SHSW WHi(G473)136)


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