It hosts events such as Riverfest, Fourth of July fireworks, Oktoberfest, Moon Tunes, and the Rotary Lights.

[1] The region's weather service has maintained a gauge for reading the water of the Mississippi river at Riverside Park for over 145 years.

A permanent shelter for this equipment was built in the 1930s along with a styrofoam float device for more easily measuring the water level.

In 1942, a transmitter was added to the shelter which meant that observers no longer had to visit the gauge in person to record readings.

This shelter remains at the same location on the southern end of the park to this day and is used by both the National Weather Service and the United States Army Corps of Engineers to obtain readings of the water level of the Mississippi in La Crosse.

[4][5] In 1908 Mayor Wendell Anderson invited landscape architect John Nolen to design the city's emerging parks system.

The gardens are divided into regions which represent the ecology of La Crosse's sister-cities in China, Germany, France, Russia, Norway and Ireland.

In 2020, a 350-foot dock was installed on the south end of the park, giving access to the downtown area to local boaters.

Most notably, it added a monumental wooden canopy which was built using trees harvested from the area and designed to reference the city's historical logging industry.

[13][14] At the northern tip of the park, there is a dock and ticket booth for the La Crosse Queen, a paddleboat which offers tours of the river.

According to one member of the La Crosse County Historical Society, the park itself was built on top of three of such steamboats and a barge which were covered up with sediment dredged out of the main channel.

After lobbying from by congressman John J. Esch, two of these cannons were designated for the State of Wisconsin, one of which was to be placed in his constituency of La Crosse.

[20] The park regularly hosts a variety of events throughout the year, most notably Riverfest, the Great River Folk Festival,[21] Oktoberfest, Moon Tunes, and the Rotary Lights.