Galena Illinois and its Lead Mines by Christian Narkiewicz-Laine
- Galena City Beautiful
- Dec 12, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2020
Architecture Critic Christian Narkiewicz-Laine Publishes New Book on "Galena Illinois and its Lead Mines".
GALENA, ILLINOIS (NOVEMBER 30, 2020) — Step back into early history and be immersed in the early founding of the Tristate Region of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
Galena, Illinois and Its Lead Mines by local history expert and author Christian Narkiewicz-Laine weaves the pioneering history of the region with rare documentation and previously unpublished photographs for an in-depth look at how an industry shaped the cities and the states in the heartland of America’s new world.
The book is published by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. with archival material and richly illustrated from the archives of The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The present-day City of Galena is named after the Latin word for lead, galena.
“In the beginning of the 19th-Century,” states Narkiewicz-Laine, “the discovery of lead in the United States initiated a ‘Lead Rush’ similar to the ‘Gold Rush,’ and the mining of the ore was in full progress in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin as European pioneers settled the Driftless Region of Upper Mississippi River Valley.”
Lead mining was a major part of this area’s history, first by the Native Americans, and in later years (late 1830s through the 1850s) by European miners and farmers.
“Before the European pioneers arrived, however, lead was discovered and mined by the ancient Mississippians over 1,200 years ago when they journied up the Mississippi River from Cahokia to find the ore to create white paint for body and pottery decoration,” continues Narkiewicz-Laine.
“After the Mississippians, the local Native American Fox and Mesquakie tribes led early Spanish explorers and French fur traders to these same ancient mines and lead deposits decades before the Revolutionary War.”
“In 1796, Julien Dubuque received a land grant from the Governor of Spain, who had resided in New Orleans at the time. The grant gave Dubuque permission to work the lead mines, which were owned by Spain and which specified the 189-square mile area to be named as ‘Mines of Spain’ outside the city of Dubuque.”
Galena’s first boatload of lead ore went down the Mississippi River in 1816. Three years later a trading post was built in Galena that led to the first steamboat arrival in 1824.
Lead fueled the economic development of the earliest cities along the Mississippi River, including Galena and Dubuque.
The rich Victorian urban architecture produced during that time from ornate civic buildings to hotels, commercial stores, and lavish residential buildings is the result of the instant wealth generated from the lead mines, which spurred other industries to make Galena the largest and most prosperous city in Illinois when Chicago was a slow growing backwater in the 1820s.
By 1845, Galena was producing nearly 27,000 tons of lead ore and Jo Daviess County was producing 80 percent of the lead in the United States.
Illinois and Wisconsin lead mining peaked in the 1840s, and a substantial percent of the mining population was lured away by the excitement of the “Gold Rush” in California.
The Civil War caused renewed lead mining activity in the use of ammunition, which waned after the war, but continued until 1914.
“Today, there is an enormous romance and romantic story-telling about the mines, the miners, and the boom-time Victorian cities that were built as a result,” continues Narkiewicz-Laine.
“However, the romantic images we reminisce today also had a darker, tragic side particularly with the many mining accidents and mining deaths stemming from this very dangerous industry.”
“We tend to forget about the tragedy, but that history, too, has an indelible mark alongside the instant prosperity of the region.”
“The lead mines area is one of the many immigrant stories about the founding of America; the settlement of the great frontier and the building and loss of an elusive dream.”
“These early European-American miners helped to build our current states and our current cities, and they will forever be a part of the history of our area for they took on a frontier and turned it into a Nation,”
Narkiewicz-Laine concludes.
In Galena Illinois and Its Lead Mines, the author includes the republication of text and original photographs from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, May 1866.
Christian Narkiewicz-Laine is an international architecture critic, journalist, writer, architect, poet, and artist. He is the former architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and is the current president/CEO of The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. He has written many articles on the history of Galena, including his most definitive book, Landmark Galena: Architecture and the Historic City, which was published in 2019.
Galena Illinois and Its Lead Mines (ISBN 0-935119-75-2) is published by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. and is softbound and contains over 100 pages and retails for $18.95.
The book is available at The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum Shop (601 South Prospect Street) and the Galena History Museum’s Gift Store (403 South Main Street) or by special order at www.metropolitanartspress.com or by calling +815/777-4444.
NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Photos of Galena Illinois and Its Lead Mines are available for download. For more details visit Metropolitan Arts Press’ website at metropolitanartspress.com
For more information contact jennifer@chicagoathenaeum.org
About The Chicago Athenaeum (www.chi-athenaeum.org) is a global nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide public education about the significance of architecture and design and how those disciplines can have a positive effect on the human environment.
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