John A. Latsch State Park

John Latsch State Park offers visitors a rich diversity of natural communities: bluffs, prairie, floodplain forests, and oak forests in its 450 acres. Enjoy views of the Mississippi River, watch bald eagles soar above the Mississippi River.

Many different species of birds pass through John Latsch State Park on their migration route. Coyotes, fox, opossum, timber rattlesnakes and white-tailed deer are present in the park.

Steamboat captains on the Mississippi River relied on three rocky-headed bluffs called Faith, Hope and Charity to navigate their way up and down the Mississippi River. These bluffs tower more than 500 feet above the river. In the 1850s, a busy steamboat landing and logging town was established below these bluffs. The logging operations supplied cut timber for the sawmills in the new town of Winona. For many years, the area was only visited by a few ambitious hikers who hiked the steep hills for a bird’s-eye view of the valley. A local businessman, John A. Latsch, purchased some of these blufflands and persuaded an adjacent landowner to donate, along with him, approximately 350 acres to the state for a park in 1925. Latsch loved to fish in the waters below the bluffs of Faith, Hope and Charity. A half-mile of trail leads to the top of Charity Bluff.

The park is 12 miles north of Winona on Highway 61.