Ho-Chunk International Garden Project

 

The City Parks Department estimates that approximately 200,000+ people access Riverside Park annually. Think of the incredible impact this new garden will have on those visitors: conveying our community's respect for the Ho-Chunk Nation and providing education about their culture while providing another place of beauty to further enhance the downtown area.

 

It is our hope to have the garden in place so the sculptures can be dedicated on Ho-Chunk Day, which is November 29, 2024. 

 

The garden will be west of the existing Cameroon Garden and will have unrestricted views of the La Crosse, Black, and Mississippi Rivers.

 

To reflect their culture, Ho-Chunk representatives have indicated they would like the garden to include native plants, including healing plants.

 

They have also recommended that a sculpture depicting Betsy Thunder be included. Betsy Thunder was a native healer who in the 1860’s used her healing skills to help both native peoples and the newly arriving settlers. The Ho-Chunk representatives have expressed their desire to symbolize through this sculpture a sense of community, friendship, and healing. It has been proposing the sculpture of Betsy Thunder be made out of solid bronze in a kneeling pose on a native blanket.  

 

The Ho-Chunk, as well as other native peoples, would shape young trees in a particular way to indicate a direction or other information and when the trees matured, the “map” could be used for many years. Therefore, the new garden will also include a trail marker in the main Ho-Chunk Garden followed by three other trail marker trees that would be placed throughout the International Gardens marking the “Ho-Chunk Trail,” with the last such marker at the bridge that crosses the La Crosse River. These would also be crafted by Mr. Downes in bronze. Quaking aspens, cedar, and dogwood trees (trees that had historically been used to create trail markers) will be planted to create a beautiful living screen between the gardens.

 

The garden will include flagstone benches made from local stone.

 

The large pathways (wheelchair accessible) will be made of the same materials throughout the Garden, reflecting that we are all part of the same good earth and we all have a responsibility to protect and preserve it for future generations. Smaller pathways will be made from ground limestone.

 

There will also be educational signage to help the public learn more about Ho-Chunk culture.

 

Landscape design and concept planning has been donated by Coulee Region Ecoscapes, and consulting and construction documents have been donated by River Architects.