The La Crosse Sailing Club History
(By Russell Aldrich, 1980)
Originally the boat was moored just above the Onalaska dam, but in 1945 Aldrich bought Stickler's interest and rented shore space from the John Sherman family on upper French Island. For the next seven years the boat was sailed from that location in company with three other sailboats, one of which was owned by Tom Markos.
Tom continued to have an enthusiastic interest in sailing on Lake Onalaska until he left the city in 1960. The formal organization of the La Crosse Sailing Club was really sparked by Dick Matheis, a young Trane Co. trainee, and he enlisted Markos and Aldrich to find a boat for him and a mooring spot. Following the acquisition of a National One Design these three people determined that the channel between Belle Island and the tip of French Island offered a fairly safe anchorage for Matheis' new boat.
Had these three not been misty eyed sailing zealots the floundering through the then marshy and brushy terrain to get to the water should have cooled their ardor for boating. While Markos and Aldrich continued to leave their boats at the Sherman beach they kept Matheis' enthusiasm alive by occasionally accompanying him on his treks through the swamp to his boat. As a result of the fraternity that developed from experiences too numerous to detail, it was agreed a formal organization should be created.
Accordingly, a meeting was held in June of 1950 at the Petitioned Yacht Club and officers were elected. There were no by-laws. These didn't appear until they were created by Harry Schroeder many years later. At the time of the organization, there were several others who joined even though they didn't have boats, one of whom was Bill Bernard. Bill bought a "C" boat the year following and, after sailing it a few years, sold it to Paul Hughes. That boat is still sailing from the Sailing Club moorings.
Within a few years Aldrich and Markos moved their boats to the channel anchorage, but rather than anchoring them in mid channel, some rickety docks were built along the shore of what is now Nelson Park. Each year a few more boats joined the club, though the willow saplings that served as "H" frames continued to be used as precarious supports for the docks.
The leasing of the point for Nelson Park by the county marked a milestone in somewhat more substantial mooring facilities. From this time on, metal "H” frames were used and more sturdy stringers were supplied. The channel leading to the lake was very shallow and narrow so the boats had to be towed out with some wheezy outboards and a decrepit rowboat the club had acquired. The docks that were built to be used on the lake side served a dual purpose: one, anchorage for boat during the races, and secondly, an area for the mothers and children to swim and sit while the wives patiently waited for the races to finish.
In 1964 Harry Schroeder and Russell Aldrich visited the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in St. Paul and obtained permission and a lease to create an artificial accreted island opposite the mooring channel. A fund drive, chaired by Jim Brindley, was successful in raising $14,000, consisting for the most part of co-signed notes honored by the State Bank. Various members assumed one half of the annual interest of their notes until they were totally paid. The Brennan River Improvement Co. built the bulkhead for impounding the sand to be pumped from the channel leading to the lake and from the total harbor area.
The dredging was done by the Fauver Dredging Co. Because the dredged spoils were in uneven mounds it was necessary for the Keith Vinson Co. to level off the 400 foot island and lay a crushed rock roadway immediately next to the bulkhead. The same company hauled in black dirt to a depth of 6 inches and then sodded that strip. A portable pump was provided, along with borrowed hose, to water and get the grass established in the hot sun of the following summer.
Sometime within the first ten years after the organization of the Sailing Club, one of the residents of French Island invoked what he felt was a legitimate salvage claim. Bob Luxford, who had just become a member and who, in his enthusiasm to tryout his newly acquired Thistle, capsized on the maiden sail, then was towed back to shore by an upper French Island commercial fisherman. Bob had effusively thanked the man who had come to his aid in bailing his passengers out of the chilly April waters.
During the following days Bob was grateful to find that none of the crew suffered pneumonia and he felt the whole episode was behind him. Not so. Within ten days he had a bill for $50 from Hagen with the explanation that salvage rights were simply being implemented.
For a number of years following this incident the 4th of July regatta was known as the "Hagen Trophy Regatta". A few comments should be made about the gradual silting of the lake and the future. So far as the sailable areas are concerned there has been little change in the 43 years since the water was impounded, but many small islands have completely disappeared due to the erosion and wave action.
The west tip of Belle Island has receded at least 150 feet because of erosion, but the channel between the main lake and the Onalaska side is now virtually free of the stumps that originally made it impossible to negotiate with a sailboat. That same channel also seems to have been scoured out to some degree so there is a greater depth. Those portions of the lake that have suffered sizeable silting are cursed with more weeds that originally, though there are some early photos of sailing on the lake that show floating weed clusters in late summer.
This beautiful body of water deserves some monumental dredging and riprapping efforts in order to sustain the wonderful recreation site it provides. It certainly shouldn't be relegated to a swamp habitat for an isolated breed of ducks as the autocrats of the Fish and Wildlife their dictatorial methods would direct it.
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