Galena, the lead city

The town is named for the ore: galena, lead sulphide, which came out of these bluffs in such quantity that by 1845 the district produced most of the lead in the United States. Steamboats ran up the Galena River to carry it out. The mines closed, the river silted, and the town froze in time, which is why the whole downtown is on the National Register. The mineral it is named after still turns up in the road cuts.