I would like to move to a non depressed area  but not a big city, no Madision.  I have 5 kids and would like to know about schools, jobs, community in general.  

While I can't provide much help in terms of schools or other family related topics - I've always been quite fond of La Crosse and Eau Claire.

La Cross looks pretty interesting E-clair I have always liked can anyone tell me more about these places.

Quoted: La Cross looks pretty interesting E-clair I have always liked can anyone tell me more about these places.

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LaCrosse is yer typical, well kinda typical, college town. I love the place. I'm out there a couple of days here and a couple of days there through out the year, mostly relating to hunting trips and such. Though I spend the majority of my time in DeSoto or Genoa(good hunting areas  around there). Haven't been to Eau Clair at all, but I got a feeling i'll be going there a bit as my Cousin starts school at UW Eau Clair in the fall.

I attended UW-Eau Claire and grew up very near there.  My wife lived in La Crosse for a year at which point I visited her 1-2 times/week.

Both are similar towns.  All the perks you'd expect with the college (entertainment, cheap labor force, 24-hour establishments, college-community partnerships) along with minor drawbacks (dive bars, college housing slums).

La Crosse is land-locked and is effectively unable to annex surrounding areas, and their budget and continued growth is challenged by this.  Managed well = they'll be fine, but if the city gov't screws it up, I wouldn't want to be a LaX resident 50 years from now.

Any specific questions?  In general, they're both nice communities.

ETA:  Both cities have Highpower rifle clubs and I've shot at both 600-yd ranges.  You couldn't find nicer people.

Thanks I will look further into those areas and help in the job area would be helpful.

What are you looking for?  Are you looking for being near a city and all the conviences or are you looking for places with great hunting or fishing?

Eau Claire is nice.  I grew up around Marshfield and I liked it a lot.  Wausau is nice along with Stevens point.  Ofg course, if you like fishing and hunting, it's hard to beat living up north.  In the south, there is limited public land and shotgun only for deer.  You also have the CWD down there also.  Bears are up north but not many turkeys.  A lot of trapping oppournities up north.

How about send us some of your insterests and we'll see what we can come up with.

Basically we now live in a town that is like Mayberry, my kids can walk to school, hunting season comes on and the bows and shotguns are evrywhere.  Very gun friendly place, lots of places to shoot, hunt, and fish.  The town has a pop of about 2500, so I would like to find something similar, maybe that is wishful thinking.  
  I do electronics repair, but I would like to  get into working with metal.  I'm not certified but I can TIG and MIG weld, and use all the machines in a machine shop safely and proficiently.  I spent 3 yrs being trained by pro's during my lunch hours at my previous job.  I need more experience but I realy like creating peices out of metal.  I used to own a construction company but got burned out after doing it most of my life and running a chainsaw into my leg I'd had enough of that.

Might want toi check out neilsville or Abbotsford/colby.  Colby has about 2500 and is combined with abbotsford.  It's about 30 to 40 minutes to wausau and there is quite a bit of good hunting and fishing areas within a 30 minute drive.

Neilsville is a bit more in the sticks, is about 2500 people and about an hour away from Eau Claire.  A lot of farms and great hunting down there.  It also has good scernery in that area.  Black river falls isn't too far away either and might fit your bill.

A town of 30,000 or less is what my wife and I are interested in and ideally we would like to be near a river or large lake.

Try the town of Siren in Burnette Co. .  I have some land there on Clam Lake and man is it peaceful and fairly conservative.  Nice outdoor range about 6miles north of Siren is a bonus but I shoot my stuff on our land quite often.

I live in Hudson WI. Which is located in St. Croix County and is on the boarder with MN, it is only a 30-40 minute drive to St. Paul MN.

The Hudson public school is VERY good. It is one of the better public schools in the state.

The town of Hudson is 12,000 and the township of Hudson is another 10 or 12 thousand.

As for large river, there is the St. Croix river which seperates MN from WI.

Hudson has been expanding, and there has been a lot of growth in the past five years. However there are still many great small towns in the area that might have the same charm that your old town has.
Some other good small towns in the are would be: Baldwin, River Falls, New Richmond, Noth Hudson, Hamden, Prescott, Chippewa Falls.

Didn't Siren get destroyed by a tornado a few years ago?  Has the town recovered?

I grew up around Marshfield to...

Have lived and worked around the state from Milwaukee, Madison,Green Bay,Wausau,Crandon,Superior
spent time in LaCrosse (Ft McCoy),Eau Claire,Stevens Point and about ten yrs in Wausau...

If you want to be close to Minnesota...well there is always Superior right on Lake Superior and across
the bridge from Duluth..great area by itself imo and the gateway to all kinds of northern forest areas
and water...lots of trout streams, big lakes, all kinds of game..low crime..decent neighborhoods and
decent schools..long winters lots of snow for snowmobiles and skiing etc..

Hudson is close to MPLS and on the big river...you can also follow up the Mississippi River to St Croix
River which is also nice..

If you dont mind being a little farther away from the MN border Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls area is also
nice and the home of Duracoat ..Lauer Custom Weaponry

You can also check out any of the smaller towns right along the Mississippi River and bluff areas and coolie
regions also lots of game to hunt.

By far my personal favorite place is up in Crandon area up into the Nicolet Forest area and along the
UP border into a place called the Sylvania Tract

Get up into Forest County and find gun friendly folks...and the best judge in the whole state...by a long shot..

If I had to pick the one spot to build my retreat...and had to stay in WI Forest Cnty would be it..

imo

Yes MustangSully, a F3 passed over Clam Lake and went right thru downtown Siren.  Two were killed from the tornado and one was accidentally beheaded while on his ATV speeding around trying to warn folks about the tornado because the warning system was not working at the time.  As horrible as this may sound, this was the best thing that could have happened to Siren because everyone cashed in on the insurance and the whole town received a welcome face lift.  

Superior is okay, the job market here could be better.  Aside from that, great fishing and hunting nearby, a few different rifles ranges or lots of public land to shoot on.