Ten things you may not have known about Onalaska, Wisconsin:
- Identical twin tennis pros Tim and Tim Gullikson grew up in Onalaska.
- Onalaska is the Sunfish Capital of the World.
- As of the 2000 census, Onalaska was home to 14,839 people.
- The city was platted by Thomas G. Rowe of New York and John C. Laird of Pennsylvania in 1851.
- The mayor of Onalaska is Mike Giese, whose term ends in 2012.
- The City requires that lawns, grasses, and noxious weeds on lots, and parcels of land be kept trimmed below 8 inches in length.
- The name cames from the poem, "The Pleasures of Hope" by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell.
- The Omni Center, Onalaska's convention center and indoor arena, is the second largest convention center in southwest Wisconsin.
- Onalaska is located on the Mississippi River Migratory Flyway and is surrounded by protected wetlands, making it one of the best fall birdwatching destinations in the Midwest.
- The Onalaska High School girls hockey team made a record six consecutive appearances in the state tournament, finishing second in 2005 and 2006.
Twitter has a feature whereby it will detect your location and tag your Tweets with where you're Tweeting from. My neighborhood, for whatever reason, is somewhat opaque to the locator service, so I never quite know where it's going to think I am on any given night. Tonight, it has decided I'm in Onalaska, which I had never even heard of prior to this evening. Turns out it's a small city on the Minnesota border, about 140 west of here. Weird.
