The north-south highway plan was “dead” for the 1990’s

La Crosse Mayor Pat Zielke predicted in 1992 that the north-south corridor idea was “dead” for the decade after Plan 5 was voted down by the city council.  But another plan, named 5-B-1, got on the ballot six years later.  That referendum was aimed at stopping project funding for two years, but the defeat led road opponents to argue that La Crosse voters don’t ever want a road built through the marsh. 

One popular western Wisconsin restaurant closed that fall…Zach’s in Prairie du Chien, named after former President Zachary Taylor, who had served at Fort Crawford.  Zach’s was the site of a big party that summer, when Bill Clinton and Al Gore stopped in PDC during a Midwestern campaign tour.  Zach’s used to be known as Geisler’s Blue Heaven, with tiny lights in the dining room ceiling representing stars.

The last week before the 1992 election was busy at the La Crosse Airport.  President George H.W. Bush flew out of the airport on Air Force One, two days before the election.  Vice President Dan Quayle also made a trip to town, as did Health and Human Services secretary Louis Sullivan.  And boarding the same plane to Minneapolis one morning after separate speaking engagements in the area were Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole and author Kurt Vonnegut.  Twenty-six years ago, 1992, yesterday in La Crosse.