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Outdoors in Galena
In an Illinois shopping town, tourists discover life beyond Main Street.
© Beth Gauper
A canoe glides past downtown Galena, through parkland that once was part of the river.
So you've done Galena — the shopping, the wine-tasting, the trolley tours, the historic houses.
What now?
This mining town in northwest Illinois boomed, went bust and came back as a boutique town for urban weekenders. Now, it's returning to nature.
Canoes and kayaks glide down a river once clogged with barges full of galena, or lead ore. Bicyclists follow on an old railroad spur. Birders prowl hillsides that once bristled with smelting chimneys.
Those hillsides, their trees shorn to feed the furnaces, gradually slid into the river, which had shrunk so much by 1910 that trade boats no longer could make the 4-mile trip from the Mississippi.
"Everything was done at the expense of the river,'' says Bill Norton of the Galena Historical Society. "The slag and dross from the smelters went into the river, and noxious fumes killed all the vegetation.''
But today, all is green and peaceful. Herons glide over paddlers, and muskrats swim along the shore. On the Galena River Trail, hikers and bicyclists pass a wetland and patches of wildflowers along limestone cliffs.
One Memorial Day weekend, I paddled down the river with Norton and Merrilee Lee, the society's assistant director. Galena's boom started in 1827, six years before Chicago was founded, but all its goods had to come up the river. By the 1850s, Chicago also was booming, and the newly rich merchant class went there to vacation and shop.
"Galenians often were criticized in Chicago's City Council for the amount of land-buying they were doing,'' Norton said. "They invested very heavily in Chicago, which turned out to be brilliant.''
Once, 85 percent of the nation's lead came out of Galena, but demand waned after the Civil War, and after World War I, the town fell into a deep sleep.
"It was a slum; it was a working museum,'' Norton said. "It had vacancy rates of 70 percent and broken windows on Main Street.''
In the 1960s, Chicagoans came to Galena with money, investing heavily in the town. They renovated its untouched brick storefronts, and antiques dealers moved in. Mansions were made into B&Bs. Now it's a perfect little tourist town, filled with milling crowds every weekend in summer and fall.
© Beth Gauper
Canoes wind down the Galena River.
As we rounded a corner lush with white and purple dame's rocket, ducklings paddled madly to get out of our path, and church bells rang from one of three white steeples. It was a pastoral scene, yet Lee wished she could see what Galena looked like 155 years ago, during its heyday.
"If I could go back for five minutes, that's what I would want to see, that view of all the steamboats and all the activity,'' she said.
In 1854, Galena was the most prosperous town on the Upper Mississippi. So it was the first stop on the Grand Excursion, a flotilla of Eastern railroad promoters, including former president Millard Fillmore. For the 2004 reenactment, it spruced up its riverfront, putting in a levee walkway that now is one of the town's most popular attractions, Norton says.
Then the crushed-limestone Galena River Trail opened, following the river 3½ miles along cliffs and meadows. Near the U.S. 20 bridge, Fever River Outfitters opened and began offering kayak and canoe tours of the river and bicycle and scooter tours of the countryside. A local dentist leads Saturday birding tours, and a conservation group hosts nature walks and events.
"There are definitely things to do here besides shopping,'' says Liz Bulasko of the Galena/Jo Daviess County visitors bureau. This year, it's planning its first campaign to promote the outdoors: "We're inviting people to come out and play,'' Bulasko says.
After our canoe excursion, we hiked two miles down the trail, stopping to watch a turtle. When we returned to the levee walkway, a backwards canoe race was under way. Jean Muchow and Lydia Zaya were there, too, laughing and cheering for two zigzagging young women. By then, motorcycles were pouring into town, creating a din, and we could see bumper-to-bumper cars on Main Street.
"We usually don't come down on weekends,'' said Muchow, a lifelong Galena resident who says she prefers the town when it's quieter.
So does Zaya, who belongs to Friends of the Galena River Trail and comes into town on Tuesdays to walk with the group. But the
retired Chicago transplant saw what Galena looked like before tourists came, so she doesn't mind the crowds.
"The Chicago people discovered Galena, and then the Chicago people saved it,'' she said. "Without tourists, we wouldn't have anything.''
Trip Trips: Outdoors in Galena
How to get there: It's half an hour east of Dubuque, Iowa, and 3½ hours from downtown Chicago. For traditional visits,
see Galena getaway.
Paddling: Fever River Outfitters offers three tours with shuttle on the Galena River, one that's two hours and five miles into Galena, one that's 2½ hours and 5½ miles out of Galena and one that combines the two, $44-$49 for canoes and kayaks, $49-$54 for double kayaks. 815-776-9425.
Bicycling: Fever River Outfitters rents adult mountain bikes, $12 for two hours. They can be used on the
crushed-limestone 3½-mile Galena River Trail, which follows the river south of town from the U.S. 20 bridge.
Outdoors tours: Fever River Outfitters offers backwaters kayaking tours on Sundays, $45.
Twelve-mile bicycle tours to Galena Cellar Vineyards include bike rental, wine tasting and shuttle back, $45. On a scooter,
it's $65.
Friday Pie Rides on scooters to Sinsinawa Mound include museum tours, a labyrinth and fresh pie, $70. A 12-mile scooter tour to
New Diggings, Wis., includes live music, beer and shuttle back, $65.
© Beth Gauper
The old river bed through Galena now is parkland.
On the 7½-hour Mississippi Adventure Days, guests kayak to Chestnut Mountain Resort, hike to the top of the mountain, have lunch, hike down, then bicycle back to Galena, $90.
Nature: The Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation offers tours of the 18-acre Buehler Preserve just north of town and nature events, such as a May 9 Wildflower Walk at the Schurmeier Teaching Forest in Elizabeth and a July 18 Tree Walk on the Galena River Trail.
Birding: Birder Gregg Painter leads 2½-hour
Saturday-morning field trips from the Galena Visitors Center, $10 or $15 per couple. 815-777-0621.
Linmar Gardens: The private 3½-acre hillside garden at 504 S. Prospect St. includes a
20-foot waterfall and two gazebos and offers tours at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., $8. Guests of the 11 a.m. tour can add a picnic
for $10. 815-777-1177.
Other tours: There are two trolley tours, two ghost tours, a walking tour and horse-drawn carriage rides. Check the
Galena web site.
2010 outdoor events: May 22, Galena Triathlon and Duathlon.
2010 events: April 16-18, U.S. Grant's Birthday Celebration. June 12-13, Historic Cemetery Walk. June 18-20, Great
Galena Balloon Race. July 4, parade and celebration. Aug. 14-15, Market Square Arts Festival.
Accommodations: For summer and fall weekends, book far in advance. There are many nice inns, cottages and B&Bs,
virtually all Victorian. You can start by looking at the 15 members of the Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers of Galena, but there
are many other inns.
The ideal thing to do is arrive midweek at the visitors center, just across the river in the old railroad depot, and leaf through its photo album of inns. Many smaller places have a two-night minimum on peak weekends.
Greenbriar Country Inn and Suites, a short walk from downtown, offers a good value and doesn't have a two-night minimum, 815-777-3153. The DeSoto House on Main Street is well-known and convenient but not a particularly good value.
Dining: The Railway Cafe, facing the river next to the Depot Visitors Center, is a very pleasant place to have
breakfast or lunch. It's in an 1854 building that once was a hotel for traveling salesmen.
On Commerce Street, the Flying Horse is a new restaurant that offers such dishes as cioppino, roast duck and braised lamb
shanks, 815-777-4800.
There are many good restaurants on Main Street, including Fritz and Frites, a French-German bistro; Vinny Vanucchi's, a long-time Italian favorite; One Eleven Main, which serves an eclectic array of American standards; and Fried Green Tomatoes, which has a large Italian menu.
Information: Galena/Jo Daviess tourism, 877-464-2536.
Last updated on June 8, 2010
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