Winona County Historical Society

09/05/2026

A group of men in front of the Yackel & Janke Wagon Manufacturers building in Lewiston, Minnesota.

L to R: Herman Frey, John Kessler, ?? Zimmerman, Gust Kreinbring, young boy, Charles Dorn, and Adolph Wachholz.

09/02/2026

At age 8, Walter Karnath's father let him try the wheel of the steamer "Elsie." You might say this kicked off his career as a second-generation river pilot. He later earned certification to navigate 2,500 miles of river.

Elsie Drewes worked on a clamming boat -- since she was 13 years old. She gave birth to her daughter on a boat. She was an expert markswoman aboard her floating shooting gallery and an unofficial midwife for the mothers along the Mississippi River near Homer, Minnesota.

Two different lives, connected by by water.

Chat the nearest body of water to where you live. Do you have a connection to it? Do you want to develop one?

Read more about Walter and Elsie in The River Gallery at the History Center. Open 10am - 4pm daily.

winonahistory.org

08/26/2026

It's the last week for potential vendors to apply for the 2026 Handmade Neighborhood Artisan Market!

The Market will be held at the Winona County History Center on Saturday, November 21, 2026, 10AM - 4PM. Applications are due by August 31, 2026 for this year's market.

HMN MARKET CRITERIA:

Originally established by a group of Winona area artisans, Handmade Neighborhood continues to strive to create a unique market with this primary criteria:

1. All items must be handcrafted by the individual artist.
2. Items must be produced in Southeastern Minnesota, Southwestern Wisconsin or Northeast Iowa.

For more details on the application and jury process, please visit winonahistory.org/handmadeneighborhoodartists or email [email protected] with further inquiries.

08/25/2026

Don't forget to sign up for the PIE CONTEST at Pickwick Mill Day, Sept. 12. Email your entry notification to [email protected] -- include your name, type of pie you wish to enter, email and phone number. We will follow up with instructions for dropping off your pie. This is a fun opportunity to show off your baking skills and support a great event and historical site.

08/24/2026

Glad this event can be hosted at the Winona County Historical Society! It's going to be a fun time.

THIS SATURDAY! Come create with us! 🎨 Join us with our friends Honoring Dakota Project during this "Gifting Series" of Community Crafting Circles and paint your own pottery!

📅 This Saturday, August 29, 11am-2pm CT at Winona County History Center

We are seeking community members to help us prepare gifts for Dakota relatives joining us for future gatherings. Paint your own Mni Sota plate - and when you donate your masterpiece, we will gift you another plate to paint for yourself. A light meal will be provided to bring us together in harmony and fuel artistic creativity.

RSVP in our bio or visit tinyurl.com/Aug29CCC

08/24/2026

Learn about the Lock and Dam system from Lockmaster Judy Denzer this Thursday! A few tickets are still available for the last History on the River cruise of the season.

Call 507-454-2723 ext. 0 or stop in the History Center to get you tickets for the 6PM cruise.

The upper Mississippi has always been a river in motion. Each spring, snowmelt swelled it beyond its banks. Each late summer, it shrank to a shallow stream. For the Dakota and other nations who had lived along its shores for generations, this rhythm was familiar — even generative. For Euro-American settlers intent on building an industrial port, it was a problem to be solved.

Sandbars and submerged snags wrecked steamboats with regularity. Boats were designed to float in just three feet of water, yet low summer levels still ran them aground. In 1869 alone, one snag-removal vessel cleared 640 obstacles from a single 270-mile stretch of river.

Early federal efforts — wing dams, dredges, a mandated 4½-foot channel — chipped away at the problem. None of them solved it. By the 1920s, floods were worsening and river commerce had lost ground to railroads. In 1930, Congress authorized the 9-Foot Channel Project — an ambitious plan to deepen the Mississippi for modern barge traffic and put Depression-era workers back on the job.

Over the next decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built 29 locks and dams along the river from Minneapolis to the St. Louis area. Each lock stepped the river down like a water staircase — 420 feet in total drop. Each dam created a broad, shallow pool behind it.

Explore more with Lockmaster Judy and enjoy a beautiful evening on the Mississippi River! Learn more at winonahistory.org/event/navigating-the-lock-and-dam-system/2026-08-27/2/

08/23/2026

An interior shot of the Old Post Office Building in Winona, Minnesota. The man and woman are unidentified (if you recognize them, let us know!).

The imposing building -- a Charles Maybury project -- was built in the 1890s and replaced by the current post office in the 1960s.

08/21/2026

For settlers in early Winona, steamboats meant survival.

Without the generational knowledge and land relationship that sustained local Native people in Minnesota, settlers had to depend on outside help. Steamboats carried mail, medicine, food, and news. Weekly -- and later, daily -- stops at Winona kept the settlers going in an unfamiliar frontier landscape.

Through long winters when the Mississippi River froze, steamboat traffic stopped and the outside world fell silent. Isolation could tip quickly into crisis.

This is why the return of the steamboat season triggered mass celebration. Reverend Edward Ely wrote:

"At this time it was customary for all, or nearly all, men, women, and children, to go to the landing to see every boat. Some one would watch for smoke away down the river and announce a boat. This would be the signal for all to get ready to make a line for the landing. They hoped to see some friend, or get a letter from home, or hear some news. It was at least a change from the monotony of every day life."

08/18/2026

Planning a long weekend to Winona? Leisure Group Travel and Visit Winona have the itinerary for you (and WCHS is on the list)! Check it out if you want to explore this beautiful city beneath the bluffs.

https://leisuregrouptravel.com/the-great-river-road-experience-in-minnesota/

Three Days of Scenic Wonders, River Towns & Mississippi Memories

08/14/2026

The sand greens of the golf course at the southern end of Whitewater State Park, Winona County, Minnesota.

The course was used by visiting and local golfers from 1928 until 1974, when it closed due to constant problems with flooding.

Comment and let us know if you or a relative played this course!