Galena (Kansas)
| Galena | |
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 Main street of Galena 2008 |
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| Location in Kansas | |
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| Basic data | |
| State : | United States |
| State : | Kansas |
| County : | Cherokee County |
| Coordinates : | 37 ° 4 ′ N , 94 ° 38 ′ W |
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) |
| Residents : | 3,085 (as of 2010) |
| Population density : | 261.4 inhabitants per km 2 |
| Area : | 11.9 km 2 (approx. 5 mi 2 ) of which 11.8 km 2 (approx. 5 mi 2 ) are land |
| Height : | 275 m |
| Postal code : | 66739 |
| Area code : | +1 620 |
| FIPS : | 20-25100 |
| GNIS ID : | 469360 |
 The Galena Museum in the former train station |
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Galena is a small town with about 3000 residents in Cherokee County , in the extreme southeast of the US state Kansas .
history
The city was named after the lead ore galena , which was found here in 1877 on the land of a German settler, the farmer Egidius Moll. The town was originally founded by the Galena Mining and Smelting Company and was initially called Cornwall . It was also known as Short Creek because of a stream that passes nearby.
The city was part of the so-called Tri State Mining Area , an ore mining area that stretched over three US states and was once home to over 30,000 residents. After the mines were closed in the 1970s, the population quickly fell to around 3,000 today.
The "Steffelback House" The story of a hidden treasure made the city famous in the late 1890s. A woman named Steffelback saw a business gap in the flourishing city and opened a brothel that soon turned into a profitable business. One day she is said to have discovered that a guest had pockets full of gold coins. She lured the drunk man into a back room and her son killed him. They robbed the man and made the body disappear into one of the abandoned mine shafts. This quickly turned out to be a lucrative "line of business" and in the course of a few years Ma Steffelback and her son are said to have eliminated no fewer than 30 guests in this way. Only after an argument with one of the brothel girls was she reported by him and finally sentenced to life imprisonment in 1897. Until her death in 1909, she did not reveal the hiding place of her presumably considerable fortune. It is still believed to be somewhere in Galena today. Her house is still abandoned on North Main Street and Front Street.
useful information
Galena is located approximately 7.5 miles (12 km) west of Joplin, Missouri on historic Route 66 , which runs just a short distance through the extreme southeast corner of Kansas.
To the northwest of Galena, there was an ammunition factory during the Second World War , which was one of the world's largest producers of ammonium nitrate . In Galena there was also an agricultural machinery factory of the International Harvester company .
On Main Street in Galena, which is part of Route 66, there is an old rusty "L-170 Truck" from this company as a decoration in front of the Four Women on the Route Diner. He was the model for the character of "Tow Mater" in Disney's Oscar- nominated Pixar animated film Cars by John Lasseter (2006).
Picture gallery
Galena's water tower.
Lead ore galena
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Personalities
- James C. Corman (1920–2000), politician, born in Galena
- George Grantham (1900–1954), Major League Baseball player
swell
- ↑ Mining History in Galena (English) ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The history of the Steffelback House (English) ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Michael Wallis, Route 66: The Mother Road, Griffin (2008) ISBN 0-312-28161-7
- Holger Hoetzel, Route 66: Straße der Sehnsucht , Ullstein; (1992) ISBN 3-550-06558-2
- Tom Snyder, Route 66: Traveler's Guide and Roadside Companion Griffin (2000) ISBN 0-312-25417-2
Web links
- Mining history in Galena (English)
- 80 anniversary of the route 66 in Kansas (English)