Galena2008
By
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Journal of our long weekend in Galena, March 2008.
Galena is a town in Northwest Illinois, about 150 miles from home. Galena sits in an unglaciated area. The ice age glaciers went both to the east and west of this area thus the terrain is very different than the surrounding area. The name of the town comes from the Galena, lead-sulflite,which has been found in abundance and the reason the area was originally settled. At one point in time, the population was larger than Chicago. In recent times the area relies on tourism and has a population of around 3500. U.S. Grant lived in Galena for a short period of time before and after the Civil War. Before the Civil War he worked with his brother in a leather shop owned by his father. After the war, he lived in a home which was a gift to him until the point where he was elected president in 1868. More history of the area is here http://www.cityofgalena.org/history.cfm
We stayed at the Stillman Inn, a bed and breakfast built in 1858-1860. It was a nice place to relax. http://www.stillmaninn.com/stillman_history.html
Since we procrastinated and made reservations shortly before we went to Galena, westayed in two different rooms during our time at the Stillman. The first room was very nice. Gas fireplace, high ceilings, gold crown molding, and decorated appropriate for the late 1800s.
The second room was a suite, with a separate stting room.
The second home of U.S. Grant was across the street from the Stillman Inn. The Stillman house was built 1858-1860, so certainly the Stillman's knew Grant and his family. The stitting room below with the portrait of U.S. Grant. http://www.granthome.com/
Dining room with a portrait of Julia Grant (U.S. Grant's wife).
Bedrooms. Grant had 4 children ( 3 boys, 1 girl)
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Replica statue of Grant and Stanton consulting with Abraham Lincoln. Titled "Council of War"
Library
Kitchen
The Grant home. It stands in East Galena, across the Galena river from the main part of town, high on a hill overlooking the town.
Statue of Julia Grant sits on the front lawn. Supposedly this is only 1 of 4 statues in the US honoring first ladies.
Some views of the town.
The oldest home in town, John Dowling's house was built in 1826. Dowling was an Irish immigrant.
The old high school at the top of the hill, first built in 1905, now condos!
The town nd is built up the side of a hill. Most of the structures are built on 3 streets, parallel to the river..
The post office and custom house was built in 1857 and is the second longest in use post office facility in the US. Built from Nauvoo limestone.
Most of the main street in Galena is restaurants and shops catering to tourists.
Each building has a plaque indicating the year first built and purpose.
A cemetery across the street from the Stillman Inn, St Michael has many old gravestones. This one marks the gravestone of Dowling. His widow built it tall so it could be seen from their house in town.
The DeSoto House Hotel opened in 1855. It originally was a 5 story building but later reduced to 3 stories since the foundation wouldn't support all 5 floors. Rooms surround a courtyard. The hotel was named for Hernando DeSoto, who is credited with discovering the Mississippi River.
East Galena has the train station. The city transformed when the Illinois Central Railroad built a line from Chicago. Prior to the railroad, the river was the major source of commerce and the method the mined lead was exported from Galena.
Waterworks building
A very nice city park -- called Grant's Park -- of course, has a large statue of US Grant.
The Galena Historical Museum is worth visting. They have a large painting of Grant accepting Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
The town is protected from the Galena River, with a large earthen dike. Flooding was a serious problem before the dike was built. The river was much larger in the early days of Galena. There was a large port and many paddleboats came to Galena. Over the years, the river has filled with silt and is a rather lazy river these days.
We drove north of Galena into Wisconsin and just happend upon a farm which had a number of welded dinosaurs visible from Wisconsin Highway 11. No signs of who created them, or for what purpose, but what a wonderful spectacle!!! Jurassic Park !!!
We continued on and drove to Dubuque Iowa and visited the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. This museum is wonderful, and associated with the Smithsonian. Highlights of our visit was the paddleboat and the aquarium.
There was a paddle-bicycle as well.
The aquarium has living creatures from the entire length of the Mississippi River.
There was a baby turtle which was following an adult turtle around. Every now and again the baby turtle would stick his face near the adults almost like it was being fed by the adult. Eventually the adult would snap at the baby and it would back off. This picture was taken through the glass wall of one tank at the aquarium. I was sitting on the floor and my camera was about a foot away from the action. (No flash). The smaller turtle is about 3” while the adult is about 8”. Clearly they were doing some ritual unknown to us.
Finally, some photos of Galena tourists.
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