The Galena River, also known as the Fevre or Fever River, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed May 13, 2011

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

which flows through the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

Geography

The river rises in

Lafayette County, Wisconsin Lafayette County, sometimes spelled La Fayette County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It was part of the Wisconsin Territory at the time of its founding. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,611. Its county seat is ...

, south of Benton and southwest of Shullsburg. It enters

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Jo Daviess County Jo Daviess County () is the northwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 22,678. Its county seat is Galena. Jo Daviess County is part of the Tri-State Area and is located near D ...

to flow through the city of

Galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cryst ...

before it joins the upper

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

a few miles south and west. The river is part of the

Driftless Area The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. Never covered by ice during the last ...

of Illinois and Wisconsin. This region was ice-free during the

Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cor ...

and underwent hundreds of thousands of years of glacial-free erosion. The river also occupies a substantial canyon.

History

The indigenous name for the river was "Maucaubee" which if translated means "fever" or "fever that blisters," the indigenous term for small pox. The indigenous gave it this name because in the early days of this country, some of the warriors existing on the present site of Galena and the banks of a small creek a little south of town, went to the assistance of their eastern brothers. On their return, they brought with them a disease that they named "Maucaubee," the fever that blistered. Hundreds of natives died, and the Indians named both the river and the stream Small Pox River. The smaller creek is still named Small Pox Creek while European settlers changed the river's name to "Fever River," and the frontier hamlet was known as the "Fever River Settlement" or LaPointe until 1826 or 1827 when it was given the name "Galena." The name "Bean River" came about from the fact that the early French traders and adventurers, who undoubtedly were in the area long before the 1820s, changed the Indian name to "Riviere au Feve," which means "river of the bean." As early as 1822, the "City" of Galena was mentioned in newspapers while Chicago was referred to simply as "a village in Pike County containing 12 or 15 houses and about 60 or 70 inhabitants." Galena was more important commercially than Chicago at this time; it served as a trading point and provided work at its nearby lead mines.

Winnebago War

The

Winnebago War The Winnebago War, also known as the Winnebago Uprising, was a brief conflict that took place in 1827 in the Upper Mississippi River region of the United States, primarily in what is now the state of Wisconsin. Not quite a war, the hostilities ...

of 1827, also known as the "Fevre River War", is associated with this river.

References

Jim Post Jimmie David Post (October 28, 1939 – September 14, 2022) was an American folk singer-songwriter, composer, playwright and actor. In 1968 his pop song " Reach out of the Darkness" charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 14 weeks, peaking ...

's historical song "Oh, Galena" opens with the line "My papa is a slave on the Fever River" and depicts a boy yearning for life in the riverboat town of Galena.

Notes

External links