Galena & U.S. Grant Museum

A museum dedicated to Galena's rich history and its most famous resident, Ulysses S. Grant. The building houses Civil War artifacts and exhibits on the town's lead mining heritage.

The Galena & U.S. Grant Museum, housed in a restored 1858 mansion, preserves the history of this once-wealthy mining town and its most famous resident, Ulysses S. Grant. Founded in 1938, the museum features an actual lead mine, Civil War memorabilia, and items honoring Grant—including an original painting depicting Robert E. Lee's surrender.

The museum's promotional materials invite visitors to "meet the ghosts of Ulysses and Julia Grant," acknowledging the supernatural history that permeates Galena. With 85% of the town's buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and a history filled with mining disasters, Civil War casualties, and steamboat tragedies, Galena has accumulated a remarkable concentration of ghost stories and documented paranormal experiences.

The museum exists within a town considered one of the most haunted in the Midwest. Civil War widow sightings are reported throughout the historic district. Ghost tours passing through the town center share tales of apparitions, unexplained sounds, and encounters with spirits from Galena's turbulent past.

The annual Haunted Galena Conference, hosted by the Haunted Galena Tour Company, explores the paranormal heritage of this "oldest and most haunted small town in the Midwest." The conference features investigations at Turner Hall, DeSoto House Hotel, and other notorious locations.

Grant himself has deep connections to Galena. His father J.R. Grant helped found the DeSoto House Hotel. After the Civil War, the general returned as a hero to crowds of 25,000 and used the DeSoto as his presidential campaign headquarters. His home on Bouthillier Street, where he lived before the war, is now a state historic site.

Whether visitors come for history or hauntings, the Galena & U.S. Grant Museum offers a window into a past where ghosts and legends walk alongside documented history.