Stone buildings at LaCrosse in line for restoration work

Efforts by LaCrosse Community Pride and the Whitman County Library to restore LaCrosse's historic rock houses have transformed the structures in recent years, and there's much more to come.

Built from basalt rocks deposited by the Missoula Ice Age floods, the stone structures were built in the 1930s. Clint Dobson, a LaCrosse businessman, built two homes, three bunkhouses and a service station between 1934 and 1936. The houses were used as rental units for farm workers and sleeping quarters for Union Pacific Railroad crews.

After housing demand fell, the facilities went unused for decades. An a...