Minneapolis Star Tribune Article

ZSW [C M Y K]G1Sunday,Jul.14,2013 taking off G2 tip sheet G3 destinations G4 yosemite midwest Steer clear of bed bugs Changes — both good and traveler G5 at your next hotel. bad — for frequent fliers. Kohler, Wis., resort is all about pampering. travel STARTRIBUNE.COM/TRAVEL • SECTION G • SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013 Behind all its Victorian beauty, Galena, Ill., is embracing 21st-century tools that will help preserve this river town. Photos by CATHERINE WATSON • Special to the Star Tribune Agracefulfootbridgeover the Galena River connects Grant Park,on the city’s residential east side,to the west side, with itsMainStreetanddensecollectionofpre-CivilWar buildings. GALENA thrives in the modern age By CATHERINE WATSON • Special to the Star Tribune torical Museum, they’re symbolic of other 21st-century Settled in a velvetarmchairintheformal parlor of changes underway in this nearly 200-year-old commu- a mansion-turned-museum, I stared into the darkened nity in Illinois’ northwest corner. dining room beyond and waited forGalena’spast to col- Galena is going green, as green as the green shut- lide with its future. ters that grace so many of its handsome 19th-century Then Galena’s favorite couple — Ulysses S. Grant homes. And it’s doing it without fanfare. and his wife, Julia — materialized from the dining-room Visitors invariably hear a lot about Grant, wholeftfor shadows and proudly welcomed me to their historic the Civil Warfromhere.Butnotourist trolling the Main town, he in uniform, holding his trademark cigar, she in Street shops is likely to hear about — let alone visit — a long, bell-skirted gown. the gleaming 1,440-panel solar array that powers the They’re holograms — life-size, 3-D holograms — town’s new sewage plant. projections more suited to “Star Wars”thantheCivil The centerpiece of Galena’s Grant Park is this statue of the victorious general, donated by a grateful citizen. War. Brainchildren of the Galena and U.S. Grant His- Galena continues on G6 Ø Other than In Madagascar, land of lemurs in zoos and research centers, lemurs are found ! This large island off the coast of Africa is a world apart, even if animal protectors might only in Mada- filled with unique wildlife and lush landscapes. protest that getting tooclose gascar; there are could accustom our visitors to dozens of spe- By ANN GERACIMOS He isn’t the only greedy one. handouts. In the distance, black- cies of different Washington Post Lured by the scent of fresh fruit, and-white sifaka lemurs dance colors, behaviors abunchof lemurs have sprung like circus performers around and sizes. What’s this lemur doing? out of the forest during our an unusual baobab specimen. He’s not exactly in my lap, breakfast hour. They’re aggres- Madagascar boasts more ANN but close enough formeto sive, but not threatening, these baobab species than anyplace GERACIMOS • wonder about its next move. furry brownprimateswiththe else in the world, but they aren’t Washington Post I’m at Camp Amoureux near irresistible bug eyes. the only natural phenomena Madagascar’s Kirindy dry rain- Iholdoutapieceof mango of note in a country where 80 forest reserve, where I’ve come to one. Theanimalreaches over percent or more of the plants to explore the country’s flora with a thin, leathery-fingered and animals are indigenous. and fauna. Thepeskycreature hand and snatches it away. is poised to grab my mango. Such intimacy is thrilling, Madagascar continues on G5 Ø ZSW [C M Y K]G6Sunday,Jul.14,2013 G6 • TRAVEL • STAR TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013 Galena thrives in the modern age ø GALENA FROM G1 more, and youlearnhehelpedwrite the terms of Lee’s surrender. I’ve always been fond of the Grants, But there’salotmorehistoryto but I am waybeyond fond of Galena cover, and the museum doesn’t have itself. When it comes to this little enough room “for the big stories town, I’m flat-out biased, so watch- about Galena that we have to tell,” ing it embrace modern technology — Breed said. The next 2020 step will be without losing its Victorian charm — asking experts to determine the size, has been a treat. location and type of space needed for I fell in love with Galena 40 years the museum’s extensive collection, ago, on an assignment to coveraCivil now mostly in storage. War re-enactment fortheStar Tri- TheGrantholograms are a glimpse bune. It wasduskwhen I drove into of this Victorian future. They are town, and the redbrick canyon that is effective enough that when the imag- Galena’s Main Street was wall-to-wall inary Julia gestured toward her own with off-duty blue and gray. real-life portrait, hanging on the par- I felt as if I’d stepped into history. lor wall next to me, I automatically AftermorevisitsthanIcancount, I turned and looked. still feel that way. It’s a famous portrait, by the way— the only one known that was painted Still Galena, only better full-face. Julia Grant had crossed eyes Once bigger than Chicago and the and wassoself-consciousthatshe busiest steamboat hub between St. usually posed in profile. She once Louis and St. Paul, Galena wasthe asked her husband if she could have focus of America’s firstminingrush. an operation to repair them, but the Long before California and the Klond- general said he loved “your dear eyes ike, miners rushed here forhigh-grade just the way they are.” lead ore, known locally as “gray gold” and technically called galena sulfide, A downtown revival which is what gave the town its name. Forty years ago, when I first saw But before the 19th century was over, that portrait of Mrs. Grant, time was the lead mines playedout,railroads by and large passing Galena by. Many put an end to steamboating, Galena’s of Main Street’s mid-19th-century once-wide riversiltedinandthetown storefronts were empty, and most gradually fell asleep. Itspopulationhas —includingtheonce-grand DeSoto shrunk steadily from a high of 15,000 in House Hotel, which anchors Main the 1840s to about 3,400 now. Street — badly needed restoration. Over the years I’ve known it, plenty Adowntowndrugstorewasstill of other small towns have changed displaying its aspirin and cough syrup beyond recognition. But not this one. on the original Victorian shelves — Galena’s Main Street looks just like not because it wasdecorator-quaint, it used to —onlybetter. The whole but because it always had. Dusty town, in fact, looks just the way it did antiques and collectibles were eco- —onlybetter. Abe Lincoln would still nomic mainstays, there were few res- recognize it, and so would Grant. taurants and, as a local man once com- Most of Galena has been on the plained to me, “you couldn’t buy a pair National Register of Historic Places of shoes on Main Street anymore.” since 1969, and its preserved architec- There weren’t even any stoplights ture is still a big attraction. But now because trafficandtourism were so people come for good restaurants, low that lights weren’t really needed. local wines, rental canoes and kayaks, Themostnoticeabletraffic warning, hot-air balloon rides, concerts and in fact, wastheyellow “Duck Cross- plays, art gallery crawls, tours by foot ing” sign at the foot of Main. and trolley, and more than two dozen Ducks actually used it. On spring bed-and-breakfast inns. visits, I often sawmotherducks Accommodating visitors while calmly waddling up from the Galena keeping Galena, well, Galena forthe River, leading strings of fluffy young- people wholive there is a big job for sters and stopping big, roaring semi- its small city government. trailer trucks in their tracks. “In the last decade, we’ve been try- There are trafficlightsnow, alot ing to create the best quality of life of them, and they’re needed, because we can,” said Mark Moran, the city Galena is bustling. On busy weekends, administrator, this past spring. “We’re locals complain that it’s hard to find trying to do the right thing.” a parking place downtown. That’s the Visitors as well as citizens benefit flip side of success. from such improvements as the mod- Yo ucanonceagainbuyshoeson ern boat dock on the Galena River, the Main Street. Also handcraftedjew- walking path atop the leveeandthe Photos by CATHERINE WATSON • Special to the Star Tribune elry, rare books, European cookware, well-groomed bike trail that follows Set among wooded hills, Galena and itsFirstPresbyterianChurchlook much as they did in U.S. Grant’s day. upscale clothes and homemade fudge the riverdownto the Mississippi, that my chocoholic friends swear is 4 miles away. That’s why city government is test- Galena life, and citizen task forces are “Attention spans are so tiny now,” the best in five states. And when it officially opens this ing LEDs in its stoplights, whyits now figuring out how to preserve and museum director Nancy Breed Beneath it all, though, Galena fall, everyone will enjoy the new recycling programnowhandlesbat- improve —andpay for—thetophalf- explained, that visitors used to remains a small town. People still watch Gateway Park — 100 acres of pasture- teries, prescription drugs and every dozen priorities by the year 2020. quickly move on. Now, they tend to out foroneanother,andthey’rewilling land on the heights east of town. It kind and size of electronics, even One priority is the history museum. linger. I did, too. The computerlets to trust strangers in a waythat’srare in was saved from development by local why City Hall is pushing “My Green In addition to the holograms, it has youchooseamaninthepainting, big American cities: Yo ucanstillcall efforts and $1.2 million in grants and Galena” tote bags. venerable exhibits ranging from one find him on the screen, click and read any restaurant in town, order a meal for donations, because people didn’t want “We’re just temporary caretakers” of Grant’s cigar butts, to an actual lead the first page of his biography.

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