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| Galena’s shops in
1927 not only sought out tourists, they even invited
them to use their rest rooms! Ad from Florence Gratiot
Bale’s 1927 booklet Galena’s Century Milestone. |
If you think Galena’s
tourism industry developed
over the past 15 or
20 years, guess again. In point of fact, Galena has been a noted
travel and tour
destination for
over 150 years! There have been ups and downs, to be sure, but
the record is clear: as a long standing travel destination,
Galena remains one of the top three in Illinois (along with
Springfield and Chicago).
Galena started out
as a frontier mining town. It was platted in 1826 and given a
name that means
lead sulfide in
Latin. Galena quickly became the hub and mercantile center of
the first major mineral rush in U.S. history. In fact, no one
had seen anything quite like it. Northern Illinois was largely
uninhabited at the time, but the Mississippi River and the
steamboat permitted migrants to leap frog into the area to seek
their fortunes.
They came from
southern Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.
New England sent many, as did Ireland, England and Germany.
Reports of the mining boom-town on the frontier quickly spread.
One observant gentleman described the town in 1841:
Certainly a more
grotesque and comical looking little city never before
existed. It looks like a straggling army of volunteer
houses climbing a precipice...the streets rise above
one another like theater boxes. Looking at Galena,
surrounded by its amphitheater of hills, I am convinced that this place
existed in Shakespeare…"
By the 1840s
Galena was the largest river port north of St. Louis and was the
chief beneficiary of a region producing over 80% of the nation’s
lead. Galena boats gained a near monopoly on the Upper River
trade as the city sought to enhance its position in trade,
commerce and transportation.
Steamboat captains
vied with each other to provide the fastest and most commodious
service to the traveler. While immigrant miners, farmers and
tradesmen were most numerous, the boat owners increasingly
catered to a growing group of tourists, or
"excursionists". Demand for excursions on Daniel Smith
Harris’ new boat, The War Eagle, was such that the respected
captain established one of the first regular tourist packages in
1845:
The War Eagle is
a new and Splendid Boat, and will be two weeks making the
trip. Capt. Harris intends to make a pleasure
excursion a reality, and will stop at all
places of curiosity or amusement as long as the
passengers may desire. A Band of Music will be on Board.
Strangers and Travelers will have a fine opportunity of
visiting one of the most beautiful and romantic
countries in the world.
In 1854 there was a Grand Excursion, sponsored by the Rock
Island Railroad, celebrating the first rail link to the
Mississippi River. Hundreds of VIPs from the east were treated
to the sites and sounds of the Upper Mississippi River. Galena
boats proudly carried the curiosity seekers up the river. The
first stop, not surprisingly, was Galena, complete with the
obligatory lead mine tour.
Perhaps few things did more to put Galena on the "must
see" map than Ulysses S. Grant. Hardly anyone knew him in
the spring of 1860 when he arrived on the Itasca to help
his two brothers in a family leather goods store. But when he
returned a victorious general after the Civil War, over 25,000
came to cheer him on. More than a few sought out the store where
he had worked, and everyone wanted to see his new house, a gift
from well-heeled supporters in the community. While Grant and
his family rarely stayed at the home, the string of visitors was
never-ending. Such was the public’s interest that the family
deeded the property to the City of Galena in 1904 following Mrs.
Grant’s death.
The Grant Home had become a significant tourist attraction by
this time, but not until the hard-surfacing of U.S. Highway 20
(originally called the U.S. Grant Highway) in the mid 1920s did
visitorship reach "mega" levels. The Galena Gazette
on October 24, 1927 reported the town’s first automobile
traffic jam:
1,300 Visitors
at Grant Memorial Home
...the Grant Memorial Home...is
increasing the pilgrimages from all parts of the United
States to this historic and picturesque city. It was
thought the week and holidays such as Memorial Day,
Fourth of July and Labor Day drew the largest possible
crowd, but Sunday had those days shaded. There were 1300
visitors registered at the Grant Memorial Home…Autos blocked
Bouthillier Street for an hour at a time...with cars
parked all over the street...the bulk of the cars seemed
to be from Freeport, Rockford, Elgin, Rochelle, Dixon,
DeKalb, Sterling, Savanna, Mt. Carroll, Fulton and
Kankakee.
Such numbers were beginning to impact the local economy.
The Gazette noted that restaurants and hotels "were
taxed to the capacity over the week-end". It was also noted
that the Grant Home custodian, assuming an average tip of 10
cents, was "well repaid for the work". It is little
wonder that the city of Galena, overwhelmed by Grant Home
activity, deeded the property to the State of Illinois in 1931.
A few short years later, in 1938, the Galena History Museum
was established and efforts began to save the Old Market House.
Artists had already "discovered" the town and
collectively the seeds of modern-day preservation and tourism
were being sown. WWII intervened, but by the late 1950s Galena
was widely recognized as an architectural and historical gem in
the making. The rest is history.
Materials relating to this story are available in
the files of the Galena History Museum and the Historical
Collections Room of the Galena Public Library.
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