Galena, KS Road Trips

While the first railway had come to the area in 1871, a spring 1877 discovery of lead ore was the impetus for a landrush which established Galena as an incorporated city in May 1877. At one point, two rival town sites (Empire City north of Short Creek and Galena south of the creek) were operated by rival mining companies. By 1904 there were over thirty mining companies; local population at the peak of the mining boom was between 10000-30000 people. In 1897 three members of the Staffleback family, which operated a house of ill repute on Owl Creek on the west side of Galena, were imprisoned for robbing and murdering miner Frank Galbreath; his body had been found dumped into an abandoned mine shaft. Other murders on the property were long alleged but never proven. The case drew instant notoriety and parallels were drawn to the "Bloody Benders", a family of dishonest innkeepers 66 miles (110km) further west (in Cherryvale KS) who robbed and murdered travellers from 1871-1873. In 2012, an Arkansas-based paranormal group restored an abandoned Victorian house at 206 N. Main Street as the "Galena Murder Bordello" to sell tours as a haunted house; their claims were aggressively debunked by the local historical society. The murders had been widely covered by newspapers at the time; a mob of forty vigilantes with torches and kerosene had burned the original wooden structure on Owl Creek to the ground in 1897, nothing remained. The ghost tours eventually were discontinued; 206 N. Main St. was sold and became an antiquities store in 2016.

Galena Mining & Historical Museum, 319 W. 7th, ☏ +1 620 783-2192. 9-11AM & 1-3:30PM, closed Sun, reduced hours off-season. Mining museum in relocated Missouri-Texas-Kansas railroad depot. Mineral specimens, mining equipment and a model of the Grand Central Mine formerly east of Galena. Collection of oil paintings titled "Abandoned Mine Scenes" by a local artist. free.

1 Cars on the Route, 119 N. Main St, ☏ +1 620 783-1366. 11AM-5PM April-Oct. Small Route 66 souvenir shop and lunch counter in a restored Kan-O-Tex service station. Home of "Tow Tater", the original 1951 International mining boom truck which inspired "Mater" in Pixar's "Cars". Mi Torito Mexican Restaurant Galena, 418 S Main St, ☏ +1 620-783-2883.

Streetcar Station Coffee Shop, 515 S Main St., ☏ +1 620-783-5554.

Galena Motel, 924 E 7th St, ☏ +1 620 783-5428. Kingdom Campground, 7146 SE 88th Dr, ☏ +1 620 783-2112.

Access is by motorcar on Route 66; Galena is eight miles west of Joplin, Missouri. This road is marked as state highway 66 from Joplin through Galena. Interstate 44 diverges from Route 66 in Duenweg (a Joplin suburb), bypassing Kansas entirely. There is no public transit of any kind in Galena.