Friday

A Visit to Galena, Illinois

early summer saw JessiKat, our daughter, in the midst of a life-changing decision.

either leave New York City and move to Dubuque, Iowa or lose her job.

since her husband J. had been laid-off and out of work since November 2008,
the choice was simple. move west!

she now works in Dubuque,
and lives in nearby Galena, Illinois by the Fever river.

we visited Galena (and Dubuque) and what folows is a short slideshow of what we saw. the young lady that pops up briefly is JessKat, one shot shows her with J.



Galena is an anomaly. it is a small town population~3,000, with a million visitors a year. why? several reasons.

though galena is situated on the plains, the Ice Age has spared Galena from the Glacial scraping that flatened surrounding territory. surprisingly it is situated in a valley, along the sides of surrounding hills. the only highland for miles. in otherwords, ski slopes!

also, Galena sports housing from the 1800's that is 85% in the National Landmark register.

additionally, because it is situated at the crossroads of three states: Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin (on the mighty Mississipi River) visitors from all three states make of it a retreat of sorts. (friendly motorists & bikers fill the tow's restaurants, clubs and bars from Friday to Sunday).

finally it was home to U.S.Grant, and is still home to many of his descendants. (one of the pictures shows the U.S. Grant home.)

also to be found is the DeSoto House Hotel named for Hernando DeSoto, the European discoverer of the Mississippi River. Abraham Lincoln spoke from the hotel balcony on July 23, 1856. two years later Stephen A. Douglas, stayed there on the eve his famous Freeport debate with Mr. Lincoln.


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Now playing: Louis Jordan - I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
via FoxyTunes

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5 comments:

Michele said...

I the the hilly parts of the Midwest. My husband just asked me where I would like to retire someday and I said some small town in the hilly part of the Midwest. Kind of narrowed it down.

bARE-eYED sUN said...

you can do a lot worse than Galena, Michele. :-)

hilly it is!

..
.ero

Anonymous said...

Great to see you visited our wonderful community! Galena and Jo Daviess County are indeed much different than anywhere else in Illinois. Hopefully you can come back again to spend more time with us. From your friendly hosts for visitor information, the Galena/Jo Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau

George said...

I'm going to have to head west to visit Galena. I've never been there, but I certainly enjoyed your pictures.

VisitGalena.org said...

I'm glad to hear you had a great time in Galena. Please visit www.visitgalena.org to help plan your next visit. You can also find us at www.facebook.com/VisitGalena.org or www.twitter.com/VisitGalenaOrg.