Visitor's Center & LaSalle Canal Boat, also called "Lock 16" (there are only 15 locks on the I&M Canal). In the Lock 14 basin, just south of downtown La Salle is the Volunteer, an 1880s replica Canal Boat. It provides a mule-pulled ride on the historic Illinois & Michigan Canal. The one-hour, round-trip journey traverses the hand-dug waterway that 19th-century pioneers traveled. The guides, dressed as Canal Era crew and passengers, provide a vignette of life on the American frontier and the Illinois prairie. Hegeler-Carus Mansion. The mansion, built in 1874 for the Hegeler Family by W. W. Boyington, is a lavish Victorian-era home with 57 rooms, 10 fireplaces, the oldest private gymnasium in America and a dining room table seating 22 people. The mansion features intricate, hand-painted walls and ceilings, elaborate woodwork, century-old chandeliers, parquet floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, etched glass windows and other fine details. Westclox Museum LaSalle County Historical Society Museum Starved Rock Visitor Center Illinois Waterway Visitor Center Wild Bill Hickok Memorial Putnam County Pulsifer House & Ag Museum Downtown LaSalle is a historic district with many historical structures and shops and boutiques catering to tourists. LaSalle has several National Historical Structures: Hotel Kaskaskia, the Hegeler-Carus Mansion, the Julius W. Hegeler House, and the LaSalle City Building. LaSalle has a National Historic Landmark: the Hegeler Carus Mansion. Sports There is a strong Little League of nearly 30 baseball teams. The Illinois Valley Youth Football League folded in the mid 2000s, giving way to the LaSalle-Peru Youth Football League. The city housed the LaSalle Blue Sox of the Illinois–Missouri League in 1914. They posted a 26–60 record. Media The area is home to three radio stations, WLPO, WAJK, and WLWF, all operating under Starved Rock Media. For newspaper, the NewsTribune serves the area, as well as many Chicago newspapers. Education LaSalle-Peru Township High School serves 9th–12th graders. LaSalle Elementary School District 122 (made up of two schools: Lincoln Junior High and Northwest Elementary) offers education for grades PreK-8th, as well as Trinity Catholic Academy. Demographics As of the 2020 census there were 9,582 people, 3,758 households, and 2,283 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,483 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 79.0% White, 2.7% African American, 0.6% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 6.1% from other races, and 10.7% from two or