Attractions and Places To See around Lake City - Top 14

When visiting Pepin, Wisconsin, the Pickle Factory Bar and Grill offers a slice of local history with your meal. Originally built on the shores of Lake Pepin in the early 1900s, it operated as the Pepin Pickling Company, producing various pickles and sauerkraut until the operation moved. Today, the building has been ransformed into a waterfront grill. Visitors can enjoy scenic views of Lake Pepin, famous as the birthplace of waterskiing. For a true taste of its past, be sure to try the house specialty: the famous fried pickles.

In 1686, French explorer Nicholas Perrot established Fort St. Antoine on the shores of Lake Pepin, an expansive stretch of the Mississippi River. Intended as a fortified trading post, the fort helped forge alliances and expand the French fur trade with the Dakota and other local tribes. On May 8, 1689, Perrot held a ceremony at the fort to formally claim the entire Upper Mississippi Valley for France. However, due to conflict in the region and the fort’s crude construction, it was abandoned around 1690. No physical trace of the fort remains today, but its location is commemorated by Wisconsin State Historical Marker 22 along the Great River Road, overlooking scenic Lake Pepin.

To reach the Rush River Delta, park in the lot on the north side of Highway 35, just west of the bridge over the Rush River. You will see a brown wooden sign for the Rush River Delta Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) on the opposite side of Highway 35. To access the delta, find the trail at the east end of the parking lot. Follow this trail east to the riverbank, then turn south along the riverbank, passing beneath Highway 35 and the BNSF railroad tracks. Continue along the faint trail on the west side of the river until you reach the end of the delta. Please note that this trail is not marked on Komoot or OpenStreetMap. We walked this trail in February with light snow cover, so I cannot comment on how easy it would be to walk in the summer.

This is a great bird-watching location. On the day I was there there were American White Pelicans and a Double-crested Cormorant flying overhead.

From this sand point projecting far out into Lake Pepin, you can feel the beating pulse of the mighty Mississippi River as you watch flocks of migrating birds and long lines of barges moving up and down the river.

Historical marker about the French Fort Saint Antoine, build in 1686.

If you are looking for the classic bluff side overlook of the vast Mississippi River Valley you have found it.