Great River Road
De Soto, WI

Named for the Spanish explorer who discovered the Mississippi in 1541, De Soto was established in the 1850's as a result of the good wheat farming of Wisconsin at the time. De Soto and Victory were both rival towns and De Soto won the edge by building dams on the Mississippi to allow steamboats to reach the town. De Soto reached its peak in the 1880's when business was booming with sawmills, grain dealers, dressmakers, blacksmiths, and breweries.