Down Under Club
La Crosse
Summary
The bar's success appears to have been very short-lived (about 6 months). The bar was gutted by fire on the last Sunday of April 1977 (April 24)-- just 3 weeks after its extravaganza weekend. According to the June 1977 issue of GPU News, "A recently installed dance floor, a beer garden, and the upper floor and bar were destroyed". We have thus far been unable to locate any reference to the bar in other Wisconsin LGBT media, so it's likely the bar never reopened.
The bar was listed only in the 1978 issue of the Damron national gay guide, but disappears from Damron after that. It does however appear in the 1981 and 1982 GAIA national Gay guides, likely due to early reports that were not removed after the fire.