My nephew, Steve Klaseus and his wife Corine told us about Galena, IL when we visited them Sept. 10. We thought it sounded interesting, so instead of heading east or south, we drove NORTH! We camped at the Palace Campground in Galena and our first stop was the Visitor's Center in downtown Galena. The Visitor's Center had many displays of items that either belonged to U.S. Grant or celebrated his presidency and his time in the Civil War. Very interesting and FREE! We also walked through the historic downtown which was very busy with tourists.
On Monday we visited the Galena History Museum and were welcomed by Gen. Grant and his wife! The town celebrated 9 generals from Galena who served in the Civil War, and had an extensive Civil War display. Galena was a boom town in the 1800's, as it had a deposit of lead that was mined using the pocket mine to extract the lead. In the 1850's the mines petered out and the miners headed west to the gold mines. The town was a bustling shipping hub, and at it's zenith had 12,000 residents. Grant's two brothers were running a leather store in Galena, and U. S. Grant was asked to move to Galena to help with the business. When the Civil War started Grant re-enlisted in the army. When the war was over the grateful people of Galena presented Grant with a two-story brick home. He lived there until he was elected president and the family went to Washington. They left their furniture in Galena, so the home boasts of having over 90% of Grant's furnishings. He returned to Galena occasionally until ill health no longer made it possible to come.
Tuesday we took the trolley tour of Galena and received a good overview of the city and various points of interest were explained. After lunch we drove 12 miles west to Dubuque, Ia. We intended to stop at their Visitor's Center but took a wrong turn and ended up at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium where we spent the afternoon viewing the salt water aquarium and history of the area. The J. M. Block, a river dredger, was docked at the Museum and a self-guided tour was available, so we walked over to see it. We still had one more building to tour, so returned on Wednesday to visit the second building and enjoyed seeing the otters and beavers and many aquariums and terrariums on the first floor, and then went to the second floor to view the turtle exhibit.
October 4 we hitched the trailer and headed to Crawfordsville, IN, on our way to Harrodsburg, KY.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment