The La Crosse Queen – A Sightseeing Paddlewheeler

The La Crosse Queen, an authentic Mississippi River paddlewheeler, offers a variety of cruises ranging from daytime sightseeing tours and weekend brunch and dinner cruises to multi-day voyages. Whether you’re traveling with family or friends, a paddlewheeler cruise is a fun way to see the Wisconsin Great River Road from a different perspective and make memories that last a lifetime.

Lacrosse, a field game whose roots are in Native American cultures, is one of the oldest sports in the world. It began as a ritualized form of prayer and later evolved into a fast-paced team sport, featuring intricate rules and various playing styles. As it spread across the nation and around the world, the game established itself as a symbol of cultural unity. Today, it’s a celebrated global sport with a rich heritage and continuous expansion.

While the court in this case was deciding on the legality of the excursion cruises, they didn’t actually discuss the actual activities on the La Crosse Queen itself. The boat loads up passengers in La Crosse, travels a few miles north to the river’s lock and dam (which is in Minnesota), turns around, and returns back to the same wharf in La Crosse where it started. This is a very different situation than that of the Madeline Island Ferry or the Washington Island Ferry, which were found to engage in interstate commerce.

The court in this case ruled that the excursion cruises on the La Crosse Queen do not constitute interstate commerce. This is because, unlike the cabs in the case, the La Crosse Queen does not carry passengers from one state to another; it simply transports people for recreational and entertainment purposes within a single city. Even though it crosses into Minnesota waters for a short amount of time on its northern trip, it does not involve any commerce or business between the states.

A tour guide aboard the La Crosse Queen will explain facts and trivia of the historical and present day river as well as point out local points of interest. You’ll get to see steep bluffs on either side of the river, one of the few remaining railroad swing bridges in America and, if you’re on a longer cruise, you may even experience going through a lock!

Jim Flottmeyer, parks department water front manager for the city of La Crosse, says that while it’s unfortunate that American Queen Voyages chose to pull its boats from the area, there are still ways to attract travelers to the city. “We hope the people who would have come on the American Queen will book with another company and visit us,” he said. “It’s certainly disappointing to lose the $20,000 a year we were getting from them that was going back into Riverside Park.”