Fruit Trees for Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and the Kickapoo Valley, Wisconsin

Gays Mills calls itself the Apple Capital of Wisconsin, and in the February 1996 cold snap NOAA's station on the Kickapoo River floor there read −48°F, the coldest reading on file at any station inside this map. Prairie du Chien read −36°F in the same cold snap, and the Lancaster station, out on the upland at the map's edge, −31°F. The Gays Mills orchards aren't on that floor. They're up on the ridges along Highway 171, and that one fact covers most of what you need to know about fruit trees for Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and the Kickapoo Valley.

The map covers a big piece of the Driftless Area in southwest Wisconsin and a slice of northeast Iowa, from Prairie du Chien and McGregor up the Great River Road, the Kickapoo and the lower Wisconsin to Richland Center and the ridge villages. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The big number is the 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, nudged for the lay of the land around you: a safe number to plan on, not the record and not a promise about how often it comes. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of average USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Prairie du Chien on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Prairie du Chien, our reference, plans for −31°F, MFTC zone 3b, with a typical winter of −17°F. The middle of the map's growing ground plans for −32°F, and half of it falls between −34°F and −31°F. The warm end is zone 4a high ground: Mount Ida, between Mount Hope and Fennimore, at −28°F, and White Corners, on the ridge east of Prairie du Chien, at −29°F. The cold end is the Kickapoo floor: Gays Mills at −40°F (zone 3a), Bell Center at −40°F and just into zone 2b, Soldiers Grove at −39°F, with Richland Center, on the Pine River, at −38°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is the Coulee Region, the part of the Upper Mississippi the ice sheets never flattened: loess-capped ridges, steep wooded valley sides and deep, narrow valleys. The Mississippi pools sit around 610 to 635 feet, the ridge villages at about 1,100 to 1,250 feet. On a clear, calm night the ridgetops lose their heat to the sky, and the chilled air slides down the hollows and coulees and collects on the valley floors.

The stations show it plainly. In the January 31, 2019 cold snap the Gays Mills station read −45°F while the Steuben 4 SE station, on the upland at 1,015 feet, read −29°F. Year in, year out, the coldest night at Gays Mills runs a median 8°F colder than at Prairie du Chien or Lynxville Dam 9. The National Weather Service at La Crosse, in the same Mississippi trench about 40 miles north of this map, compared its valley airport with a ridge site 655 feet higher: on ordinary nights they read about the same, but when the valley fell to −10°F or colder it averaged 4.8°F colder than the ridge, and up to 16°F colder.

That's the thermal belt. Within 3 miles of nearly every town here, the benches and slopes 100 to 700 feet up plan 3°F to 5°F warmer than the valley floor. Seneca, 250 feet above its floor, plans for −30°F while the floor within 3 miles plans for −37°F. Height on the upland isn't enough by itself, though: the ridges have their own shallow valleys, and a hollow pools cold however high it sits. Shady Dell, at 976 feet but right on the floor of a small upland valley, plans for −34°F.

The map also tilts from southwest to northeast. Prairie du Chien sits on a sand and gravel terrace about 40 feet above the river, on the broad floor of the Mississippi trench. Gays Mills and Richland Center sit right on their floors in narrow valleys walled by ridges; the Kickapoo runs 126 miles to cover about 60 as the crow flies. We haven't found a published explanation for why the Kickapoo floor runs so much colder than the Mississippi floor, but it fits the physics: most of a cold pool's chill is made in place as the floor radiates to a clear sky, and a narrow, sheltered valley can stay calm and keep cooling when a breeze still stirs the big trench.

The Mississippi doesn't rescue the river towns in midwinter, because it freezes; in late February 2025 the river at Prairie du Chien was under ice and snow, and only a few artesian spots stay open. Lynxville Dam 9 has read −43°F. Yet the dam stations at Lynxville and Guttenberg get 183 to 184 frost-free days, against 162 at Prairie du Chien and 146 at Gays Mills. Open water holds heat and river fog can delay a freeze, but we haven't found a published explanation for the dams' long season, and the map's spring layer, built from the lay of the land, reads Lynxville 4°F colder than downtown Prairie du Chien. We'd trust the station for ground right at the water and the map for the toe slopes back from it.

Aspect and soil matter too. The goat prairies on the south-southwest bluff faces get so much winter sun they freeze and thaw over and over, and a trunk facing that way takes the same beating, so paint those trunks white. The ridges carry well-drained, slightly acid silt loam; the floors are river sand, often under thin peat and silty overbank deposits, and that wet, grassy bottom ground runs cold on a frost night because it's low and insulated. Snow protects roots: dormant apple roots are seriously hurt near 10°F while the wood above takes about −40°F, and after the snowless 2024-25 winter Wisconsin's fruit program found damage just below the graft union.

Prairie du Chien, Bridgeport and the confluence

Prairie du Chien sits on a long triangular plain with the Mississippi on the west, the Wisconsin on the south and tall bluffs on the east-northeast. The plain is a late-glacial terrace of meltwater sand and gravel, well-drained ground a little above the bottoms: downtown plans for −31°F, zone 3b. NOAA's station here has 127 years on file, averages a yearly low of −20°F and has never read colder than −37°F. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −33°F, and the benches and the warmest tenth of the ground −29°F.

The low ground is west and north of downtown: St. Feriole Island (the city's Fourth Ward until the 1965 flood, now a park), St. Feriole Slough and Lawler Park, and the sloughs along County Road K toward Ambro Slough and Gremore Lake, with Frenchtown on the plain just north of the city. Woodridge Acres, south of downtown, plans for −33°F, 2°F colder than downtown, and reads 2°F colder at bloom. Climb the bluff and it changes fast: White Corners, 320 feet above its floor, plans for −29°F (zone 4a) and reads 11°F warmer at bloom.

Our Bridgeport spot, on a bench 140 feet up, plans for −32°F and reads 8°F warmer at bloom. Across the Wisconsin, below the 500-foot bluffs of Wyalusing State Park, Bagley and Wyalusing plan for −34°F and read 2°F to 3°F colder at bloom, while Brodtville, up top, plans for −29°F (zone 4a) and reads 11°F warmer. On a town lot at −31°F, Lapins cherry, Siberian C peach and Superior plum (−35°F) clear it; Contender peach (−30°F) is worth a try against a south wall in town and a good pick at White Corners or Brodtville.

McGregor, Marquette and the Iowa bluffs

McGregor sits on the valley floor below nearly vertical sandstone bluffs, with Marquette just upriver at the Marquette-Joliet Bridge and Pikes Peak State Park's 500-foot bluff to the south. Both towns plan for −32°F, zone 3b, and read about even with downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom. McGregor Heights, in the south part of the city, sits 330 feet above its floor, plans for −30°F (zone 4a) and reads 15°F warmer than downtown Prairie du Chien on a bloom night, tied for the warmest spring reading of any named place on the map. Up the Iowa shore Harpers Ferry plans for −35°F, and the river bottom at Waukon Junction reads 6°F colder at bloom. Back in the Iowa hills, the Decorah and the Iowa Driftless map covers more of that country.

Lynxville, Ferryville and the Great River Road

North of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin 35 squeezes between the bluffs and the Mississippi, and Lynxville (beside Lock and Dam 9) and Ferryville sit on that narrow strip of floor. Lynxville plans for −36°F, zone 3a, and reads 4°F colder than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom; Ferryville's spot sits in a draw, plans for −34°F and reads 2°F colder. Within 3 miles of either the floor plans for −37°F and the benches −32°F. Above the dam, the lower end of Pool 9 is Lake Winneshiek.

The ridge villages are a different climate. Seneca, at 1,252 feet, plans for −30°F and reads 13°F warmer than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom; Eastman, 270 feet above its floor, plans for −30°F (zone 4a) and reads 10°F warmer. Mount Sterling and Fairview, 250 to 260 feet up, both plan for −34°F and read 11°F warmer. Those ridges are where the apricots and sweet cherries go on this stretch. Farther up the river, the La Crosse and the Driftless map picks up.

Gays Mills, Soldiers Grove and the Kickapoo Valley

The village calls this country the Hidden Valleys. The Kickapoo is spring-fed trout water that floods fast, and its floor holds the coldest named places on the map. Gays Mills sits on the floodplain at about 700 feet and plans for −40°F, zone 3a, with a typical winter of −23°F; the benches within 3 miles plan for −36°F. NOAA's Gays Mills station averages a yearly low of −25°F and gets a median 146 frost-free days. Soldiers Grove, up the valley, plans for −39°F, and Bell Center and Petersburg, downstream, −40°F. Steuben, near the lower end, is milder at −33°F, with the warmest tenth of the ground within 3 miles at −27°F.

Now look at where the orchards are. Nearly all of them sit on Highway 171, and Sunrise Orchards, founded by the Teach family in 1913, describes its trees as on the hills high above the Kickapoo Valley. At the 1913 Kickapoo Orchard's listed location, about 3 miles east of the village, the map reads 1,146 feet, 360 feet above the floor. It plans for −35°F, 5°F warmer than the village, and on a still bloom night it reads 13°F warmer than downtown Prairie du Chien, 16°F warmer than Gays Mills itself. The Wisconsin State Climatology Office says the Coulee Region ridges give the orchards natural frost protection and more sun. They aren't immune: a late spring freeze in 2019 took Turkey Ridge Organic Orchard's entire crop.

On the floor, plant for −40°F: Haralson and Honeycrisp apples (−45°F), Kerr applecrab (−50°F), Evan's Bali tart cherry (−45°F) and honeyberry (−50°F). Take pears and plums up the slope, and keep apricots on the ridges.

Boscobel, Muscoda and the lower Wisconsin

The Wisconsin runs its last 93 dam-free miles as the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, a valley of sandbars and sandy islands under bedrock bluffs. Boscobel sits on the floor with the river 0.6 mile north across a riparian swamp. It plans for −33°F, zone 3b, and reads about even with downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −34°F and the benches −30°F. NOAA's Boscobel Airport station runs a median 4°F colder than Prairie du Chien's and read −36°F in January 2019.

Wauzeka, near the Kickapoo's mouth, plans for −32°F, and its benches within 3 miles plan for −29°F, tied for the mildest bench ground around any town on the map. Woodman, on the river bottom, plans for −31°F but reads 5°F colder than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom, the floor's real problem along this river. Upstream, Blue River and Muscoda plan for −35°F (zone 3a). Near Blue River the hillside at Eagle Cave, 280 feet above its floor, plans for −32°F and reads 15°F warmer at bloom, and Pine Hill, southeast of Muscoda, reads 15°F warmer too. All along the riverway the sandy floor is the cold pool, and the hillsides above it are where the orchard goes. Farther upstream, the Baraboo, the Dells and the lower Wisconsin map picks up.

Richland Center and the Pine River

Richland Center sits at 728 feet on the Pine River, and the map puts the town right on its floor: −38°F, zone 3a, with a typical winter of −20°F. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −37°F and the benches −34°F. NOAA's Richland Center station, which ran from 1922 to 2014, averaged a yearly low of −23°F and recorded −46°F on January 30, 1951; its median frost-free season was 148 days. Boaz, west of town, plans for −38°F too, and Bosstown, at 941 feet but at the bottom of its own small valley, reads 5°F colder than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom. Wild Rose, on the ridge 380 feet above its floor, plans for −33°F and reads 13°F warmer. Oakwood Fruit Farm in Richland Center brought in about half a crop in 2021 after spring frost.

Fennimore, Mount Hope and the Grant County ridge

South of the Wisconsin, north Grant County is loess-capped upland. Fennimore, on a bench 140 feet above its floor, plans for −30°F, zone 4a, and reads 7°F warmer than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −34°F. Mount Ida, at 1,213 feet and 230 feet above its floor, plans for −28°F, the warmest planning low of any named place, and reads 12°F warmer. Stitzer plans for −29°F, Mount Hope −30°F, and out east Highland −30°F (zone 4a).

The upland has its traps. Shady Dell reads 7°F colder than downtown Prairie du Chien at bloom, tied with Eckards on the Mississippi bottom for the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map, and Patch Grove's spot, in a draw at 1,058 feet, reads 4°F colder. Bloomington and Mifflin, low in their valleys, plan for −35°F. The Lancaster 4 WSW station, at 1,040 feet with 108 years on file, has never read colder than −31°F and gets 164 frost-free days, more than any valley station but the two river dams. UW Extension warns that hilltops are often too windy, so take a shoulder or bench out of the worst wind.

Spring frost and bloom from the river to the ridges

The spring layer follows the same drainage as the winter low, only sharper, since spring frost pools usually top out 30 to 200 feet up. On a still bloom night McGregor Heights, Eagle Cave's hillside and Pine Hill read 15°F warmer than downtown Prairie du Chien, while Shady Dell and Eckards read 7°F colder. NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 frost dates mostly line up with it, the river dams aside. The median last 32°F comes April 16 at Lynxville Dam 9, April 26 at the Lancaster upland station, April 28 at Prairie du Chien and May 8 at Gays Mills and Richland Center. The last 28°F, about where open blossoms start dying, comes April 8 at Lynxville, April 15 at Prairie du Chien and April 26 at Gays Mills. In a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F comes May 14 at Prairie du Chien and May 21 at Gays Mills. Gays Mills' first fall 32°F comes a median October 3, a week ahead of Prairie du Chien, and UW Extension says to pick apples that ripen by mid-October.

In 2012 a record-warm March pushed bloom early and a mid-April frost cut Wisconsin's apple yields roughly in half. In 2021 a spring freeze halved Turkey Ridge's early varieties, and that frost was unusually widespread rather than local. In 2024 southern Wisconsin hit 29°F to 30°F on April 20 and 21, early apples like Zestar! were at king bloom by April 26, and UW told growers to scout for frost damage, especially in low spots.

Site comes first. Apricots, peaches and sweet cherries bloom first, so they go highest, on ground that reads 8°F or more warmer than downtown (the ridges above Gays Mills, Seneca, Eastman, Mount Ida, McGregor Heights, White Corners). Apples can take lower ground, since only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open. My own rule of thumb: unless the fruit is clustered (cherries, grapes), most fruit can lose half its blossoms with negligible effect. On frosty ground, mow the orchard floor short through bloom, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night.

What the weather records say

The big outbreaks in NOAA station records show the floor and ridge split every time. In the January 30, 1951 cold snap, Lone Rock, on the Wisconsin River bottom just east of the map, read −53°F (the coldest reading of any station in or near it), Richland Center −46°F, Lynxville Dam 9 −43°F, Prairie du Chien −37°F and Lancaster −28°F. In January 2019, Gays Mills read −45°F, Boscobel −36°F, and Prairie du Chien, Steuben 4 SE and Lancaster all −29°F. Not all of it comes in January: in the March 1, 1962 cold snap Prairie du Chien read −33°F. March cold is risky because a tree can lose hardiness over a few warm days and win it back only a little with each cold one.

In an average year the coldest night runs −19°F at Lynxville and Lancaster, −20°F at Prairie du Chien and Boscobel, −23°F at Richland Center and −25°F at Gays Mills. UW Extension says USDA's 2023 map puts zone 5a (−20°F to −15°F) throughout southwest Wisconsin, built on the average of each winter's coldest night; Gays Mills' average is already colder than that. Our zones run on the bad night you plan for, and NOAA station records show that night runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low.

What you can grow here

Every plant on our site is zoned to the coldest temperature it has actually come through. Rated at or below your planning low is a good pick; within 5°F warmer is worth a try in a good spot.

Zone 4a ridges and benches, −28°F to −30°F

Mount Ida, White Corners, Brodtville, McGregor Heights, Eastman, Fennimore and Highland. Apples: Liberty (−30°F) and Freedom (−35°F). Pears: D'Anjou (−30°F) and Bartlett (−35°F). Sweet cherries: Rainier (−30°F) and Lapins (−35°F). Peaches: Contender (−30°F), which Tom McCamant grows at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F, and Siberian C (−35°F). Apricots: Westcot (−45°F), though UW Extension says apricots crop only 1 or 2 years in 5 in southern Wisconsin. Plums: Stanley (−30°F). Grapes: Marquette (−35°F) on a warm, sheltered south slope.

The Prairie du Chien terrace, the river towns and the middle ground, −31°F to −34°F

Prairie du Chien, McGregor, Marquette, Bridgeport, Wauzeka, Boscobel, Steuben, Bagley, Ferryville and many ridges above the Kickapoo. Apples: Macoun (−35°F), Cortland (−40°F) and Haralson (−45°F). Pears, on the higher part of your ground: Summercrisp (−40°F). Cherries: Black Gold (−35°F) and Meteor tart (−40°F). Peach: Siberian C (−35°F). Plums: Superior (−35°F) and Mount Royal (−40°F). Bush fruit: Montana Black Currant (−50°F). Worth a try on the warmest benches: Liberty, Contender and Rainier (−30°F).

The Kickapoo, the Pine River and the coldest river floors, −35°F to −40°F

Gays Mills, Soldiers Grove, Bell Center, Richland Center, Boaz, Lynxville, Harpers Ferry, Blue River and Muscoda. Apples: Frostbite and Wolf River (−45°F). Applecrabs: Kerr and Centennial (−50°F) and Trailman (−60°F); Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F, and if you only plant one tree, make it Kerr or Trailman. Tart cherry: Evan's Bali (−45°F). Up the side slope: Bolshaya pear and Brookgold plum (−50°F), and Debbie's Gold apricot (−50°F) on the ridges only. Bush fruit: honeyberry, Montana Black Currant and Nanking cherry (−50°F). We've never seen winter damage on Montana Black Currant, even in October snaps of −10°F to −20°F. The −40°F picks above fit this band except the bottom at Bell Center, where they're worth a try.

Rootstocks, site and local troubles

UW Extension rates B.9 very cold hardy (a dwarf that needs staking), M.26 the hardiest Malling stock but prone to fire blight and unhappy in wet soil, and G.30 a good performer at the coldest test sites. Roots are the weak link: at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 has seen near −50°F under snow with no rootstock damage. Pick a gentle slope where cold drains away (Montana State says a 4 to 8 percent grade), and open up any hedge or tree line that dams cold air at the foot of it. Apples need a pollenizer, a second variety blooming at the same time within 200 yards; our pollination maps show what pairs with what. Apple scab is Wisconsin's most serious apple disease, so UW strongly recommends scab-resistant varieties; deer need fencing, and rabbits and rodents girdle bark. In zone 4 and colder we taper water from mid-August so trees harden off before the floors' early fall freezes.

Fruit history: Gays Mills and the Kickapoo orchards

In 1905 John Hays and Ben Twining gathered local Kickapoo apples for the State Fair, took first prize, and went on to top honors at a national apple show in New York. The Wisconsin State Horticultural Society planted a five-acre trial orchard on High Ridge, and by 1911 the orchards had grown enough to form a sales organization. Today the village counts over a thousand acres of orchards, and the Wisconsin State Climatology Office names the Gays Mills cluster, in the Coulee Region of Crawford County, as one of the state's three orchard regions, with Door County and Bayfield.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Prairie du Chien?

Downtown Prairie du Chien plans for −31°F, MFTC zone 3b, with a typical winter of −17°F; the bluff at White Corners plans for −29°F (zone 4a). UW Extension says USDA's 2023 map puts southwest Wisconsin in zone 5a (−20°F to −15°F). USDA's zone is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Prairie du Chien?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 28 and the last 28°F at April 15. In a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F comes May 14. At Lynxville Dam 9 the median is April 16; at Gays Mills it's May 8.

Why are the Gays Mills orchards up on the ridges?

Because the Kickapoo floor is the coldest ground around. Gays Mills plans for −40°F, while the ridge at the 1913 Kickapoo Orchard, 360 feet above the floor, plans for −35°F and reads 16°F warmer than the village on a still bloom night. The Wisconsin State Climatology Office says the Coulee Region ridges give the orchards natural frost protection and more sun.

What growing zone is Richland Center?

Richland Center plans for −38°F, MFTC zone 3a, with a typical winter of −20°F, and the benches within 3 miles plan for −34°F. NOAA's Richland Center station averaged a yearly low of −23°F and recorded −46°F on January 30, 1951.

Can you grow peaches in southwest Wisconsin?

Yes, on the right ground. UW Extension calls Contender and Reliance marginal here and says temperatures below −15°F kill the fruit buds. Siberian C (−35°F) clears the planning low everywhere but the coldest floors, and Contender (−30°F) fits the zone 4a ridges like Mount Ida, Eastman and McGregor Heights. Plant them high, where the spring layer reads warm.

Is the Kickapoo Valley a frost pocket?

Its floor is. NOAA's Gays Mills station runs a median 8°F colder on the year's coldest night than Prairie du Chien and gets its last 32°F a median May 8, against April 16 at Lynxville Dam 9. The ridges above it plan 4°F or more warmer and read far warmer on a bloom night.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.