Westby

From the program of the 1940 Legion conference in Westby

A bustling little city, with a population of 1,400 busy people, most them are the descendants of the Norse Vikings. Progressive peace loving and hospitable.

During the 1940s, Westby’s State Street had more than its share of ‘watering holes’

Westby is situated in the midst of Wisconsin’s dairyland in Vernon County (named Bad Ax County by the first settlers). Situated on splendid roads and highways which branch out to all parts of the country. U.S. 14 and S.T.H. 27, the last named also known as the “Old Indian Trail” and which winds its way among the rolling hills and country sides of Monroe, Vernon and Crawford Counties, dipping down to the mighty Mississippi past the famous old Fort Crawford and down through the picturesque river city of Prairie du Chien. A few minutes drive from Westby, one can swing down into the lovely valleys of Spring and Timber Coulees, hereabouts called “Little Norway,” and truly a paradise on earth. Thousands of people from near and far every year drive down through lovely valleys to feast their eyes on this scenic wonderland, right here in this or own God’s Country.

Spring fills the air with romance, and so it does also fill these beautiful valleys with fishermen, there to match their wits with the wily brook and rainbow trout which in abundance make the rippling streams their habitat. Many are the stories (fish stories) spun by nimrods who fish these streams in the spring and summer.

Westby boasts of fine churches, modern schools, a well stocked pubic library, municipally owned power and light plant, modern water system, newspaper (The Westby Times), a fine modern creamery with a large patronage, tobacco packing and warehouses, several up to-date food stores, two general merchandise establishments, one dry goods and notions store, furniture store and funeral parlor, bakery and five restaurants, five taverns and a hotel, a new modern $25,000 playhouse (The Westby Theatre), a telephone company, two drug stores, two lumber yards, two coal dealers, two meat markets, a machine and truck body building shop, three garages and repair shops, two implement dealers. Farmers Exchange, and a flour and feed merchant, a shoe store, jewelry store, a paint store, a tailor shop, a billiard parlor, the Vernon Electric Co-op and REA affiliated headquarters office is located here. We have a strong banking institution with total assets well over $1,500,000, a fine City Hall which houses the jail, street department and splendidly equipped fire department, a harness and shoe store. Westby has eight gasoline service stations, four insurance offices, lawyer, physician, two dentists and three real estate dealers, five sanitary dairies, live stock and shipping yard, a hatchery, a plumbing shop and several painters and electricians. There is also an exclusive dress shop, a beauty shop and two barber shops. There is a flour and feed mill, building and contracting firms, a tin shop and several carpenters and cabinet makers as well as many other individual business and professional enterprises such as bulk oil and gas distributers.

City Park
Notice the corner of the band stand on the left.

In 1939 Westby completed the construction of a new and modern High School and gymnasium and auditorium which has a seating capacity of 1000 persons. The enrollment of the Westby Schools for the year of 1939-1940 is 430 and of this number 250 are in high school. Westby has a fine athletic field and public playground, which is well lighted for night games such as baseball and kittenball and is the home field for the Westby High School football team.

Mother Nature has presented Westby with a beautiful natural park situated in a wooded rocky glen in the northwestern section of the city. Thousands of tourists from all parts of the country have visited this beautiful spot and marveled at its natural beauty. Stately oak trees and velvety ferns dot the landscape and flowers in abundance loll in the crevices of oddly shaped rock formations.