Contact:

Robert C. Myers, Curator
Berrien County Historical Association
P.O. Box 261
Berrien Springs, MI 49103

Tele: (269) 471-1202

Museum tour to Galena, Illinois

Join the Berrien County Historical Association this spring for a fantastic four-day, three-night tour of Galena, Illinois, the hometown of General Ulysses S. Grant. Museum curator Bob Myers will lead the four-day, three-night tour to Galena and Dubuque. The tour will run Wednesday - Saturday, June 7-10, and will depart from the Courthouse Museum in Berrien Springs.

Lead mines made Galena a boomtown in the mid-19th century. Miners wrested galena (lead ore) out of the ground and shipped it down the nearby Mississippi River. By the Civil War, many of the Midwest's leading citizens lived in Galena. It residents included Ulysses S. Grant (then a down-on-his-luck former army captain), and the Washburn family, a political dynasty whom historians have called the "Kennedy's of the 1860s." Mining wealth helped Galena create wonderful architecture in the residential neighborhoods and the bustling downtown.

Galena fell on hard times in the early 20th century. The lead mines petered out, the unfortunately named Fever River shrank to a fraction of its former size, and the riverboats disappeared. Galena fell into a Rip Van Winkle sleep.

Then, Galena's residents realized that they were sitting, not on a lead mine, but on a gold mine. The urban renewal projects that wrecked so many downtowns and neighborhoods in America had bypassed Galena. The town's 19th century character had survived intact. The end of the 20th century saw Galena awaken as a tourist Mecca. The entire town is now on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts some of the best-preserved commercial and domestic architecture in America.

Transportation for the BCHA's Galena Tour will be via Cardinal motorcoach, departing from Berrien Springs. A trolley tour of Galena, narrated by a professional guide, begins the tour with an exploration of Galena's colorful history. Dinner and lodging will be at the historic DeSoto House Hotel. The DeSoto House is famed as the oldest operating hotel in Illinois (although with modern amenities!) and has hosted Ulysses Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Abraham Lincoln.

Stops the next day include the Galena Historical Museum, the Galena Market House and the Elihu Washburn House. The afternoon includes a generous amount of free time to visit Galena's many great shops.

The Galena tour continues on Friday with a visit to the Ulysses Grant home. Grant returned from the Civil War a national hero. The people of Galena presented him with an Italianate brick mansion, where Grant and his family lived until he became the president of the United States. Now a National Register of Historical Places site, the Ulysses S. Grant Home helps visitors understand the man who led the Union armies to victory in the Civil War.

A stop at the Galena Cellars Winery & Vineyard for a winery tour and a box lunch is also included. In the afternoon, the tour departs Galena for nearby Dubuque, Iowa, and the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. This brand-new facility interprets the history of the Mississippi River and the region's aquatic life. The museum's exhibits include the steamboat William M. Black and the towboat Logsdon, plus a 92 foot-long map of the Mississippi River. The museum's aquarium features otters, ducks, alligators, frogs, turtles and snakes, all of which live in America's most famous river. The tour then takes a 2 - hour Mississippi River dinner cruise aboard the Spirit of Dubuque, an authentic sternwheel riverboat.

The last day of the tour takes a visit to historic Prairie du Chien to tour the fabulous Villa Louis. The Wisconsin Historical Society site has just completed a ten-year, multimillion-dollar restoration. Louis Dousman inherited a fortune from his French-Canadian fur trader father. He began construction of an Italianate mansion in 1872, which his widow would name Villa Louis. Now fully restored with ninety percent of its original furnishings intact, Villa Louis sits on a 25-acre estate on the Mississippi River.

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The tour fee of $549 (museum members) and $579 (non-members) includes motorcoach transportation, lodging, all breakfasts and dinners, one lunch, all admission and tour fees, taxes and gratuities. Non-members can join the Berrien County Historical Association and take immediate advantage of the lower members' rate. A deposit of $100, fully refundable through May 1, is required for reservations.

For reservations or more information, call the Berrien County Historical Association at (269) 471-1202.

The Berrien County Historical Association’s 1839 Courthouse Complex is located at 313 N. Cass Street (old US 31), in Berrien Springs, Michigan. It is the site of the Historic county seat and comprises the 1839 Courthouse, 1870s Sheriff’s Residence, 1830 Murdock Log House, Bennett’s Forge and 1870 Jail Plaza. For more information call (269) 471-1202.

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