Named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, the first European to discover the Mississippi River, the DeSoto House opened in 1855 at a time of economic boom in Galena, Illinois. It billed itself “the largest hotel in the west.”
During its heyday, the red brick building served as a bustling home base for the many prospectors who came to strike it rich in the town’s thriving lead mines. Just 10 years before the hotel opened its doors, Galena was home to the production of over 85 percent of the country’s lead ore.
Unsurprisingly, the hotel became the epicenter of Galena’s social and political scene. And its opulence reflected it: An impressive spiral staircase is a focal point of the lobby, while velvet carpeting, satin curtains, and marble-top tables elevate the rooms.
For decades, the hotel saw a whole host of famous political guests, from Senator Stephen A. Douglas to President Abraham Lincoln, who, in 1856, gave an address from the hotel balcony.
The history continues. Following the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant returned to his hometown of Galena to a crowd of over 25,000 and a ball was held in his honor at the hotel. He would later use two rooms at the DeSoto House to run his presidential campaign. The hotel is just over the Galena River from Grant’s Bouthillier Street home, now a National Historic Landmark.
As legend has it, some visitors may have never left. The third and final floor seems to drum up the most attention. On this level, past guests have reported everything from inexplicable cigar smoke wafting around their rooms to forms sitting on the edge of their beds, people dressed in vintage clothing floating in the halls, and hearing conversations—when no one is there.
Dinner theater performances, like “Murder and Mayhem in a Mining Town,” and other big-ticket events, like the General’s Ball, which honors the town’s nine Civil War generals, draw large crowds to celebrate Galena’s storied past.
