DESOTO HOUSE HOTEL

Once the principal river port of the Upper Mississippi Valley, Galena reached its economic peak during the 1850’s.  With the coming of the Illinois Central Railroad, a group of local investors formed the “Galena Hotel Company” and built a grand hotel to reflect the growing prosperity of this “Metropolis of the Northwest”.  Named for the discoverer of the Mississippi River, the DeSoto House opened on April 9, 1855 and was billed as the “Largest Hotel in the West.”