The Great River Road Learning and Visitor Center along the river in Prescott continues to thrive and
serve the community, featuring the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers confluence region through education programs, exhibits, native plant gardens and cultural experiences and displays.
Executive Director Linda Schenk said the center has brought thousands of visitors from not only across the country but internationally to the area.
“The Wisconsin Department of Tourism just compiled our 2025 economic impact report, so we gave them our numbers. We had 20 different countries and 44 different states. The countries that we had this year were countries we have never had before. We had South Korea, which is a country we’ve never had before. We had Labrador, from Canada. Just countries and places we’ve never had before. Then 44 states, 13,000 people came into our building and got clicked, otherwise there is a whole bunch of people outside that never got tallied in that number. So, we have lots of people who have come to our center.”
Schenk said there are new exhibits coming to the center so even if you have visited before it will be a newer experience.
“We have three brand new exhibits that are going into the space. We have an exhibit focused on indigenous people. It’s actually being curated and made for us by the Prairie Island community. They have taken a stand that we have made and have curated this exhibit for us, so this is a new exhibit. Our second exhibit will be all about the confluence. Information on what is this? How do these two rivers merge? What kind of fish live here? What kind of ecosystem produces biological about the confluence about that? Then we also are going to do an exhibit on transportation, focusing on the Great River Road. Not just the Great River Road, but also the train. I was told that that track runs all the way down to Louisiana, that that railroad track is an extensive 10-state track. Then boats, transportation of barges and pleasure boats. So that will be another exhibit.”
Schenk also said there will be celebrations throughout the month of May for a significant anniversary for the center.
“We opened our doors May 7th, 2006. So here we are 20 years later. Our month of May will be what we are calling our Grand Re-opening, a 20-year celebration and so on. May 1st if you would like to come over and see our newly renovated inside of our building, we’ll have some treats, and introduce to what we are, come on May 1st. And then the whole month of May is gonna have a lot of different programs, gala, just a lot of different things to celebrate our 20th anniversary.”
Hear more on In Depth on KDWA and KDWA.com.
To listen to the full broadcast, click the soundbite.