A Mineral and a Museum

On Saturday, we went to the town of Galena, IL, which is about a half hour from our campground in Dubuque. Galena is a very picturesque town situated on the Galena River, which flows into the Mississippi River. We got there early and had a little time to wait before the shops opened, so we sat on a bench at the top of a levee overlooking the Galena River. From our viewpoint, you could see where there had been some recent flooding.

We walked up and down Main Street, where there are lots of historic buildings that were very well preserved, as well as some shops, restaurants, bars, wineries, and more than a few cannabis shops. We entered a few stores that caught our attention: a coffee/tea shop, some gift shops, and a chocolate shop (where we spent $9 on a couple of small, bite-size truffles).

 

But our most enjoyable stop was at a fossil shop, where we made a friend. We walked into the fossil shop expecting a shop similar to the others we had entered, but as we walked in, it was so small there was barely enough room for Joe and me to stand. The man who ran the shop was a very interesting figure who had been in Galena for 26 years. He started talking to us about his fossil-hunting adventures, which he did in southwestern Wyoming, the Sahara desert in Morocco Africa, and other interesting places. As he talked to us, he kept stopping to explain the terms he was using, and we finally told him that we were both geologists (i.e., we speak the language). Then he said that 95% of the people who came into his shop were geologists. Gee, a fossil shop attracting mostly geologists, what a surprise! The sign outside his store advertised fossils, and in parentheses, said this: large selection of politicians. He told us that there was a “gold mine of fossils at the local courthouse” (apparently speaking about the local councilman, mayor, etc.). Anyway, we had a very nice conversation with him. We were fascinated by his fossil-hunting stories and he was fascinated with our travel story – going from Pittsburgh to Seattle and back. He asked us almost as many questions as we asked him.

 

As we were shopping in Galena, we were hoping to find samples of the mineral galena, which is a shiny metal composed of lead sulfide. I know to most of you that doesn’t sound too exciting, but to a couple of geologists, it would have been a nice souvenir to get a sample of galena from the town that was named for the mineral. In fact, Galena and the galena ore was the sight of the first major mineral rush in the US, before the gold and silver rushes in California and Colorado, respectively. So there’s historical value as well. We thought surely we could find some galena in Galena. But no luck, as the local shops were more interested in selling chocolate, tea, and pot.

After our stroll up and down Main Street, we drove back to Dubuque and enjoyed the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. There were some very interesting exhibits in this museum, from the history of the river, to stories about the different cities located along the river, to man’s attempt to “control” the river (hint: not possible). 

   

    

   

Part of the exhibit included the lower portion of the Mississippi near New Orleans and “bayou country”. And what bayou country exhibit would be complete without a real live alligator?!

 

   

After we left the museum, we found a local church where we attended Mass, and then we went back to the campground and called it a day.