A burning police car got national attention, 28 years ago

Video of a police squad car on fire in downtown La Crosse made news in April of 1991, as a symbol of what became known as the Coon Creek riots. The cop car was tipped over in the Pearl Street area, and one man was arrested for starting the fire. More than 60 people were taken into custody out of a crowd of 2000 that gathered downtown during a weekend of canoe races on Coon Creek. The ’91 riot was the third in a row during Coon Creek weekend, and bar-time crowds challenged police again in 1992 before the city took steps to keep the streets under control.

Plans for a new La Crosse Country Club were announced that spring. A site for a golf course near Highway 16, east of Valley View Mall, was chosen after La Crosse voters revoked the lease on the land along Losey Boulevard that’s now the Forest Hills course. It would cost about $6 million to develop the course, that was scheduled to open in 1995.

La Crosse somehow got mistaken for Appleton in a story published in Woman’s World magazine. The travel article about Appleton was accompanied by photos of the giant six-pack and the Gambrinus statue at the Heileman Brewery. The magazine said a photo supplier sent the wrong pictures. The reaction from one Heileman employee was ‘Pretty funny, huh?’…in 1991, yesterday in La Crosse.