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location: rochester life > featured stories
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Small Town Spotlight Wabasha-Kellogg
By
Often overlooked as a simple stopover on the Highway 61 trip from Winona to Red Wing, Wabasha offers much of the Mississippi River town trappings without a hint of the tourist trappery.
Often overlooked as a simple stopover on the Highway 61 trip from Winona to Red Wing, Wabasha offers much of the Mississippi River town trappings without a hint of the tourist trappery. The city, occupied since 1826, bills itself as “one of the oldest towns on the entire upper Mississippi River,” and Wabasha has held onto its history. In the mid- to late-1800s, Wabasha thrived as a logging town and steamboat stop, and even manufactured the sternwheelers for a short time. A century later, three-quarters of the downtown’s low slung brick buildings still date from the nineteenth century. The state’s oldest hotel, The Anderson House, still houses guests after nearly 150 years. There are no franchised arches or large retail outlets to mar the quaintness of Wabasha. Unique shopping can be found along Main Street in the Old City Hall, a turn of the century landmark building. At the center of things is the National Eagle Center (152 West Main, 877-332-4537) in downtown Wabasha. Visitors can look at and learn from injured eagles that reside here. The backdoor of the Eagle Center looks out on the Mississippi River where many of the eagles feed and play. Wabasha has lots of eagles — hundreds of seasonal visitors add to the handful of nesting pairs — and lots of people come through this city of 2,600 people just for a glimpse. And while the eagles may draw them in, they come back for the bluff-backdropped scenery and classic shopping. This area of the Mississippi is a popular area for eagles year round, because of its proximity to the confluence of the Chippewa and Mississippi rivers. The Chippewa’s flow into the Mississippi often keeps water open through the winter, so the site is a popular winter feeding place for eagles as well as a stopover point for migrating eagles in the fall and spring. An estimated 50 eagles spend winters at Read’s Landing, a floodplain forest just north of Wabasha. Once the center of the area’s lumber trade, Read’s Landing boomed in the mid- to late-1800s, when an estimated 2,000 rafts of downed trees — with some log rafts as big as three-plus acres — were floated down the Mississippi annually. The area, now little more than a scenic overlook, once housed 27 hotels and 21 saloons. The region’s 1870 brick schoolhouse, one of Minnesota’s first brick schools, now houses the Wabasha County Historical Society’s Museum, which includes a replica school, country store, Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit, and much more. Along Wabasha’s Main Street is a growing list of restaurants and eateries to serve visitors and locals. Dave Fisk, a Wabasha property developer who’s had a hand in the redevelopment of downtown Wabasha, has taken to calling Main Street “Restaurant Row” as the city’s restaurant offerings have blossomed. Built as a beer, bait and burger shack, Slippery’s is a Wabasha classic. Immortalized in the Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men movies as “Chuck’s Bait Shop,” today’s menu features everything from the Putz Burger to the Morons Chicken to Catfish Hunter. At the end of Main, it’s a favorite for boaters who dock there for a beverage and a bite to eat. The Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon movie about the friendship and feuds of the pair of senior citizens in Wabasha garnered the spotlight for the town when it premiered in 1993. The annual Grumpy Old Men festival, slated for late February, features a fishing contest, motorcycle ice racing, grumpy old pet pageant, and a contest to — and we’re quoting right from the brochure — “guess the weight of Catfish Hunter,” which may or may not be a reference to the Oakland A’s/New York Yankees pitcher of the 1970s. Wabasha is first and foremost a river town, and Great River Houseboats (651-565-3376, www.greateriverhouseboats.com), is the spot where non-boaters can create their own on-the water experience by renting various houseboats, ranging from the 48-foot Captain’s Choice to the 30-foot Lil’ Hobo. “With a little training, anyone can handle these boats,” says owner Mike Fries. “A lot of people see the river every day, but you don’t really understand how beautiful it is until you spend some time on it.” Great River Houseboats is located within Wabasha Marina Boatyard (1009 E. Main, 651-565-4747). The private, three-and-a-half acre marina and boatyard provides safe dockage and storage for boats up to 50 feet long and 15 feet wide. Its many amenities include restrooms, showers, private parking, and picnic areas. For unique shopping, Wind Whisper West (170 Pembroke Ave.) carries hundreds of kimonos, most to be displayed as wall decorations. Richard and Jan Fuller moved their business from C
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