The prehistoric glaciers which leveled most of Illinois left much of this Jo Daviess County area untouched. Thus, the lead and zinc ore deposits of the earth's bedrock remained on or near the surface. The indians had a crude system of mining, and reports of their mines reached the French. About 1690 Nicholas Perrot visited the mines in this region, and in 1700 Pierre Charles Le Sueur took sample ore from the deposits along the Mississippi River. The great minng fields marked on early French maps, combined with glowing tales of upper Mississippi minerals, led John Law, a Scot promoter, to emphasize their possibilities in 1717. The French government became so involved in backing him that it bordered on bankruptcy when Law's 'Mississippi Bubble' burst. In 1822 Colonel Richard M. Johnson obtained the first lease from the Federal Government to mine lead around Galena, and he was given a military guard since the Fox Indians were still occupying the area. The United States Government expected to receive royalties on the lead produced but collection attempts failed, and in 1847 the lands were sold outright. The lead mines around Galena reached their peak in 1845, when they produced about 83 percent of the total United States output. Lead in the surface veins was finally exhausted in the 1850's, and without the necessary capital for intensive mining, lead production declined during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Prior to 1820, Indians and occasional white traders occupied LaPointe, the name given to the present site of Galena. The settlement grew rapidly in 1823 and 1824 as each boat deposited new arrivals on the banks of the Fever (now Galena) River. The town was laid out in 1826, and the name changed to Galena (Latin for sulphide of lead). Terror reigned in the region during the Black Hawk War in 1832, but the suppression of the Indians cleared the way for unrestricted white settlement. As supply center for the mines and shipping point for the growing river commerce, Galena became a thriving city when Chicago was still a swamp village. Galena's zenith arrived in the 1840's, and residents lavished money on elaborate houses, many of which still stand today. By the 1850's the surface lead deposits were depleted; the Galena River, once over 300 feet wide, began to gather silt; and the railroads started to take the river commerce. Ulysses S. Grant arrived here in 1860 to work in his father's leather store. A year later this still obscure clerk marched off to the Civil War; in 1865, he returned in tiumph to a gift mansion donated by his Galena neighbors. Grant was so prominet that he overshadowed the town's eight other Civil War generals. In 1869, after his election as President of the United States, Grant appointed his Galena friends John A. Rawlins, Secretary of War; Elihu B. Washburne, Secretary of State; Ely S. Parker, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.