[2] Often called Wisconsin's second-oldest city, Prairie du Chien was established as a European settlement by French voyageurs in the late 17th century.

This location offered early French missionaries and explorers their first access and entrance to the Mississippi River.

The first known Europeans to reach Prairie du Chien were French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, who arrived by canoe on June 17, 1673, discovering a route to the Mississippi River.

Prairie du Chien's significance as a center of the fur trade did not diminish until the mid-19th century, when European demand declined, as did game stock.

After the American victory, the Treaty of Paris granted the area to the new United States of America, but the British and their Loyalists were slow to withdraw.

The U.S. was slow to present any authority over Prairie du Chien, but late in the War of 1812, when the government realized the importance of holding the site to prevent British attacks from Canada, it began construction of Fort Shelby in 1814.

The fort was the site of the negotiations and signing of the Treaties of Prairie du Chien (1825 and 1830), by which the Fox and Sauk ceded much of their land to the U.S.

Representing them along with the United Nations of the Chippewa, Odawa and Pottawatomie in the 1829 negotiations was Billy Caldwell, of Scots-Irish and Mohawk descent.

In 1829, the army doctor William Beaumont carried out many experiments on digestion in the hospital at Fort Crawford.

Colonel Zachary Taylor, who later became the 12th U.S. president, was the commanding officer at Fort Crawford during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, who later became president of the Confederate States of America, was stationed at Fort Crawford at the same time.

Prairie du Chien's best-known traders during this time were Michel Brisbois, Joseph Rolette, Nathan Myrick, and Hercules L. Dousman.

Dousman built a fortune in the fur trade, which, combined with income from investments in land, steamboats, and railroads, propelled him to become Wisconsin's first millionaire.

In 1870, Louis Dousman used his inheritance to construct a luxurious Victorian mansion at the site of the former Fort Shelby.

After the fur trade declined in the mid-19th century, Prairie du Chien's attention shifted to agriculture and the railroad.

This problem was temporarily solved by disassembling the trains at Prairie du Chien and ferrying them across the river to be put back on the tracks on the other side.

A better solution was found by Michael Spettel and John Lawler, who designed the permanent Pile-Pontoon Railroad Bridge to span the river in 1874.

[11] Campion High School produced several notable alumni, including Vicente Fox, Congressman Leo Ryan, Governor Patrick Lucey, actors David Doyle, George Wendt, and Kevin McCarthy, and writer Garry Wills.

[14] In 1828, the Prairie du Chien area became a part of the Town of St. Anthony, which included all of Crawford County.

Just north of the city limits, where the plain forms part of the Town of Prairie du Chien, is a small unincorporated settlement known locally as Frenchtown.

Both inside and outside the city limits, backwaters of the Mississippi River occasionally break across the far west side of the plain to form small islands.

Most of these islands are too small and flood-prone to have ever been inhabited, but one just west of downtown Prairie du Chien formed the city's fourth ward until a 1965 flood prompted its residents' mandatory relocation to higher ground.

[17] Prairie du Chien has recorded Wisconsin's highest temperatures for January, March, May, September, and November.

Aside from its somewhat larger-than-average tourist trade, Prairie du Chien's economy is similar to most other Midwestern cities of its size.

Two railroads and a two-runway municipal airport make the city a transport and shipping hub for the area.

The Prairie Villa Rendezvous, a gathering to recreate the atmosphere of a 19th-century fur trading camp, has been held annually in the city every Father's Day weekend since 1975, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.

In 2001, Prairie du Chien gained brief national attention for its first annual New Year's Eve celebration, during which a carp from the Mississippi River was dropped from a crane over BlackHawk Avenue at midnight.

The annual seven-day, 500-mile supported bike tour of Wisconsin known as GRABAAWR begins in Eagle River and ends in Prairie du Chien.

Other print media in the area include the Wisconsin-Iowa Shopping News, which is distributed to 19,297 homes and businesses weekly.

Bus service to La Crosse is provided three times daily by Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit.