Wet Coulee

 written by Amanda Lambert

Wet Coulee Cemetery, located in the Town of Farmington began in 1880 when the Mindoro Lutheran Church decided to start their own church cemetery. According to church records, three families offered land for this cause; Ole Woll, Martinus Mikkelson and Peter Eliason. The decided location was on the farm of Peter Eliason in Wet Coulee. Rev. O. C. O. Hjort dedicated the land as Wet Coulee Cemetery on August 4, 1882.

 Records dating back to August 23, 1880, mention the formation of an association for the Wet Coulee Cemetery. Several local men gathered at the Eliason home, elected officials, and agreed to meet every November. In October of 1880 the property was sold to the association by Peter and Martha Eliason and the deed recorded on August 4, 1882. It is assumed that the association dissolved at some point around the time the Town of Farmington took over care of the land in the mid 1900's.

Within the Town of Farmington’s maintenance, a fence was added to encircle the cemetery, brush was removed, and the grass kept mowed. Still later, a road was put in by the Onalaska National Guard and signs were added to mark the cemetery.

Wet Coulee Cemetery is the final resting place of Stanley R. Christianson, La Crosse County’s only Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Christianson joined the Marines when he was 17 and, at age 25, was killed while protecting others from an enemy attack near Seoul, Korea. Christianson was buried in Wet Coulee Cemetery in 1951. On July 4, 1959, a memorial was dedicated to Christianson in Veteran’s Memorial Park, near West Salem, WI. In 1978 The Trane Company of La Crosse donated a flagpole which the La Crosse County Veterans Allied Council erected over the Christianson family plot.

No recent burials have taken place at Wet Coulee Cemetery. The last being that of Inga Christianson, in 1974.

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