A storm on the Mississippi helped set John A. Latsch on a path that would eventually preserve thousands of acres along the river, including the land that became Perrot State Park.
A Storm on the River
According to Wisconsin DNR history, Latsch was canoeing on the Mississippi when a storm forced him ashore at a landing called Camp Glory. He overturned his canoe, crawled beneath it and planned to wait out the storm.
Farmer John Shamong had other ideas. With his dog barking beside him, Shamong ordered Latsch off the property. Latsch complied, but he apparently did not forget the experience. The next morning, he instructed his business agent to purchase the land.
That confrontation became the beginning of Latsch’s conservation work along the Upper Mississippi. By the time he died in 1934, the Winona businessman had acquired more than 18,000 acres in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Much of that land was eventually given to the public.
Creating Perrot State Park
One of Latsch’s largest gifts came in 1916, when he donated 1,010 acres along the Trempealeau Bluffs to Wisconsin for a state park.
Perrot State Park was established in 1918. It was named for Nicholas Perrot, the French explorer and interpreter associated with an early winter camp near the bluffs.
Latsch also donated land that became part of Merrick State Park and helped preserve other river lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin. His canoe trip did not take place at Perrot State Park, but the experience helped begin the conservation work that eventually protected it.
Why Nicholas Perrot?
In 1685, Ho-Chunk guides led Perrot to the Trempealeau Bluffs. Perrot and his men built a small fort and spent the winter of 1685–86 there before moving farther up the Mississippi.
A French map made in 1688 marked the location of the winter fort near the Black River. In 1888, remains believed to be from Perrot’s post were found during railroad construction along the base of the Trempealeau Bluffs. A historical marker was later placed near what is now the park headquarters.
More than two centuries after Perrot’s winter camp, the new state park was named in recognition of his connection to the site.
A Much Older History
Perrot was not entering an unknown or unoccupied landscape. Indigenous people had lived around Trempealeau Bay for thousands of years before the French arrived. Archaeological sites and burial mounds remain within and around the park, and Ho-Chunk and Dakota people continue to have ties to the region.
Ho-Chunk guides were also the people who led Perrot to the bluffs in 1685. Without their knowledge of the river and surrounding country, his winter camp may never have been established there.
A Landscape Preserved
Today, many visitors know Perrot State Park for Brady’s Bluff, Trempealeau Bay, its hiking trails and its views across the Mississippi River valley. Those experiences deserve stories of their own.
Behind that scenery is another story. The park’s name reaches back to a French explorer and the Ho-Chunk guides who brought him there. The park itself owes much to a Winona grocer whose unpleasant night beneath an overturned canoe helped convince him that people should have places along the river they could all enjoy.
Sources: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, “History | Perrot State Park” and “History | Merrick State Park”; Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, ed., History of Buffalo and Pepin Counties, Wisconsin (1919).