Galena: Grant's Hometown & 1850s Lead-Mining Streetscape

Galena's Main Street descends through a limestone gorge to the Galena River in a three-block commercial strip of Italianate buildings that have not materially changed since the 1860s. The town was the center of the upper Mississippi lead-mining region and a major steamboat port — in 1845 it was wealthier than Chicago. The DeSoto House Hotel (1855, six stories) served as Ulysses Grant's 1868 presidential campaign headquarters. The streetscape is one of only a handful in America where you can walk a full commercial block and be looking at unchanged mid-19th-century architecture in every direction.

Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Galena Historic District — Main Street — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.

A craft brewery in a historic Main Street storefront, producing beers named for local history — the Lead Mine Lager, the Fever River IPA — and serving them alongside a pub menu of cheese boards, flatbreads, and sandwiches. The brewery's connection to the local lead-mining and river-trade history makes it a fitting final stop on a Galena day trip.