Bay City and Maiden Rock, Wisconsin - history, pictures, events, attractions, shopping and more!

Antiques not yet available	Renamed from Saratoga in 1886, Bay City was once a vital center of river activity here in Pierce County. At one time this quaint little town was home to two general stores, A pickle factory, a blacksmith shop, two grain elevators, and sand mind and a steamboat wharf as well as a jail, a post office, a bank, a jail and taverns. The Bay City Train depot was once a popular express stop between Chicago and St. Paul because of the high volume of fresh fish shipped from here. A local sawmill and shingle mill supplied building materials for the many of the first homes in the area. Bay City is located at the head of Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River. As you approach Bay City on Hwy. 35, cross over the railroad tracks and enter the heart of the village. You will immediately be rewarded with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River. Every year, early in the Spring, you will find eagles in the trees on the shore and out on the ice of the River. Maiden Rock, a village of 149 people in Pierce County, lies at the confluence of the Mississippi and Rush Rivers. It was named after a old Dakota Indian legend of the tragic leap a young princess, who chose death rather than marriage to a man she despised. As legend has it, a beautiful Indian maiden named Winona falls deeply in love with a young brave from a different tribe. The Indian princess leapt from the top of a 400-foot bluff rather than marry a man not of her choosing. In the early 1850's a permanent settlement was founded by brothers Amos and Albert Harris, appropriately named Harrisburg. From the wooded slopes could be viewed miles of bluff land up and down the river. It was a most beautiful place to build a town. After several years the Harris brothers sold much of their holdings to a visionary young man from the East. J.D. Trumble was full of ideas to expand the tiny village which he named Maiden Rock, after hearing the legend of the tragic leap of the maiden Winona, who chose death rather than marriage to a man she despised.
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