MENUWeekly Column
Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 1/4/2026
by Kristen Parrott, curator
Happy New Year! The Vernon County Historical Society looks forward to a year of growth and positive change. As always, we will have a full calendar of events, classes, programs, and more, throughout the year.
Our public history programs are usually held on the first Tuesday of the month, for six months of the year starting in February. These programs are still being arranged, and we will begin advertising them soon.
The monthly genealogy class is held on the second Thursday of the month for most months of the year, also starting in February. The topics for each class are currently being lined up.
2026 will be a big year for all history-lovers because of the commemoration of the 250th birthday of the United States. The official celebration will be held on July 4 all across the country, but we will be examining themes related to the 250th all year. These themes include “We the People”, “Unfinished Revolutions”, “Power of Place”, “American Experiment”, and “Doing History”. Our commemoration will include exhibits, programs, and events, including the Strawberry Shortcake Social on July 4 at the historic Sherry-Butt House.
One of our challenges for 2026 will be to raise more money for operational costs. A sizable portion of the Vernon County Historical Society’s annual income comes from Vernon County, which has supported us since the 1950’s. We are very grateful for that support. The amount of our county support has been cut by 25% for 2026, so we will need to find additional ways to raise money on top of all of our current fees, sales, fundraisers, etc.
In the new year, we look forward to discovering all of the improvements generated by now having heat and air-conditioning on the upper floors of the museum building, from staff being able to work on exhibits year-round to school groups being able to come visit in the dead of winter. Installing an HVAC system upstairs was the major accomplishment of 2025, and we hope that it will benefit the whole community.
Join us in 2026 for a year of fun and learning!
For the week of 12/28/2025
by Kristen Parrott, curator
2025 was a big year for the Vernon County Historical Society, with a number of important events and changes in addition to our regular offerings.
Monthly public history programs at the Vernon County Museum and History Center attracted big crowds for topics such as the Amish in Wisconsin, “Indigenous Ways of Knowing about Wisconsin’s Tribal Nations”, and the La Crosse and Southeastern railroad.
New exhibits installed at the museum included one about the Romance School, several focused on the U.S. 250th, and a temporary display about Norwegian immigrants in Vernon County. Among the groups taking guided tours at the museum this past year were Viroqua 3rd graders, Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School 4th graders, and Hillsboro 5th graders.
The genealogy class that meets at the history center on the second Thursday of each month (except in December and January) explored many topics this past year such as the Coon Prairie Cemetery, researching ancestors from Ireland and the United Kingdom, and genealogy resources at the Prairie du Chien public library.
Community events that the Vernon County Historical Society organized in 2025 included the annual drive-through pork chop dinner, the country schoolhouse road tour in October, and the July 4th strawberry shortcake social at the Sherry-Butt House.
The biggest news of 2025 was that we fundraised for and installed heating and air-conditioning on the upper floors of the history center building, and insulation in the attic. We hope that this will be a great benefit to the whole county, as visitors can now tour the exhibits at any time of the year in relative comfort. About 20 years ago we devised a three-point plan to add an elevator, a conference room, and upstairs heating/air-conditioning to the building, and now we have completed the final portion of that plan.
Other accomplishments of the year included creating a temporary exhibits room, improving shelving in the newspaper storage room, and finishing our multi-year project of creating a country schoolteacher database.
We are so grateful to the many volunteers who helped accomplish so much, and to the many community members who support us and attend our events and programs. Thank you!
Visitors listen attentively at a Vernon County Historical Society history program in 2025.
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