More than 1,100 of the region’s second-home residents are cloistered in Galena Territory, a 7,000-acre development southeast of Galena. What started 35 years ago as a collection of simple homes without garages has packed in 63 holes of golf, tennis courts, a 225-acre lake and new second homes that top 5,000 square feet.  “I see plans for these new houses, and they say dog-shampoo room and media room, and I just shake my head,” said Pam Cramer, who heads Galena Territory’s architecture-review committee and is a 20-year second-home owner there.  “People who are building some of these very large second homes see them as places where their children can bring their children,” said Andrea Kenna, a Galena real estate agent.  For instance, Jeff Hebrank, a St. Louis-area lawyer, and his wife are building a 5,000-square-foot third home in Galena Territory — in addition to the three-bedroom town house in the same development that they already own — just for that purpose.  “Thanksgiving and Christmas are very popular times around here as a result,” Ms. Kenna said. “If you order Thanksgiving dinner, people from the resort dress as pilgrims and deliver it to you,” she added, saying “the kids just go wild over that.”  Galena embodies the great American river-town thrill ride. In the 1850s it was the lead-mining center of the Midwest, bigger than Chicago and home to the chief customs house for Mississippi River trade. Steamboats plied the Galena (formerly the Fever) River and in 1860 Ulysses S. Grant worked as a clerk in his father’s leather goods store. After the Civil War, zinc mines supplanted the lead mines, and the railroads came and spurred another boom.  But when the river silted in, the mines closed and the railroad began to bypass Galena, the town fell on hard times. Then a flood in 1937 destroyed the downtown and led to the construction of a floodgate at its west end.  “In the ’60s the city fathers had a choice with Galena, whether to open up downtown for redevelopment or to preserve the buildings, some of which were boarded up,” said Kathy Bookless, an agent with Eagle Ridge Realty in Galena. “At that point the mayor said: ‘Galena is a gem. It only needs to be polished.’ From then on Galena went the preservation route.”  Most of the city’s downtown was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and then the antiques stores, the craft shops and the tourists moved in, sprouting like mushrooms after a steady rain.  Thanks to restrictions on electric signs and a series of face-lifts, Galena has a look that hasn’t changed in years. The only thing that changes about the storefronts is the tenants. “There are more restaurants — more good restaurants — and fewer antiques stores,” said Pete Stryker, a second-home owner from Chicago. Local residents and second-homers alike appreciate the shift, which has brought in upscale restaurants like Fried Green Tomatoes and the peat-smoke atmosphere of Frank O’Dowd’s Irish Pub.  “Downtown is a little more bustling,” Ms. Cramer said, and Friday afternoon in Galena proves that. Couples push strollers, Harleys roll down Main Street and, according to Ms. Kenna, “it seems like there’s a parade all the time.”  In Galena, golfers get sand traps at sunrise, land lovers get wild turkeys in the hollows, shoppers get quaint boutiques, the sightseers get history by the bucketful (Grant’s home is a popular landmark) and kick-backers get morning coffee on a porch swing.  “Fall is the best, with a real New England feel,” Mr. Hebrank said. “And spring is prime golf season, with lush fairways and fast greens.”  And there are those who favor the cold and snow. “I love winter out here,” Ms. Cramer said. “Some people don’t like to be around here in the winter; it’s too quiet. But we like it best. The lake is frozen for skating, there’s sledding everywhere and skiing. It’s a very rocky, stony-fireplace, stewy, red-wine-by-the-fire sort of place.”  For residents of Chicago, Galena is an easy three-hour drive from a city where there are few easy drives. “Of the three places Chicagoans can go for a weekend — Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, the beach towns of western Michigan and Galena,” Mr. Stryker said, “Galena is the only one where the drive isn’t a fight.”  Dan Gilbert, a Rockford, Ill., lawyer, said: “People respect each other’s privacy. For instance, Harrison Ford visits frequently, and we make sure he can enjoy it without being annoyed.  “It’s a little tough to get to,” Mr. Hebrank said, of those visiting from out of state. “You can fly into Dubuque or Madison and drive an hour. Otherwise it’s about a three-hour drive from Chicago or a five-hour drive from St. Louis.”  While Galena offers four sturdy seasons, summer can get steamy in the valleys, touristy in town and crowded in the Territory. In winter, the scenic winding roads are not for the faint of heart.  “The thing you have to realize about the real estate market in Galena is there’s actually three markets: The Territory, the miners’ cottages and historic homes in town, and then the rural area,” said Terry Heim, a Galena real estate agent with Coldwell Banker.  Prices in the Territory range from $150,000 for a furnished two-bedroom town house to more than $1 million for a shoot-the-works mansion. Outside the Territory, properties generally range between $100,000 and $1 million.  “Actually, some of the largest second homes are outside the Territory, on acreage, at the end of a dirt road that doesn’t seem to lead anywhere,” said Mr. Heim’s son Damon, who is also a real estate agent.  Real estate prices are holding at a $313,000 average and a $190,000 median throughout Jo Daviess County, where 70 percent of all the real estate sold is second-home-related, Terry Heim said.  POPULATION 3,396, according to a 2006 estimate by the Census Bureau.  WHO’S BUYING Chicagoans and residents of St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, looking for a rural retreat.  GETTING THERE Galena is 160 miles northwest of Chicago. The town is on U.S. Highway 20, which connects Chicago and Dubuque. Small commercial planes fly into Dubuque’s regional airport, which is 23 miles from Galena. The closest large airport is in Madison, Wis. — Dane County Regional Airport — 100 miles northeast.  WHILE YOU’RE LOOKING The Inn at Irish Hollow (2800 South Irish Hollow Road, 815-777-6000; www.irishhollow.com) has B&B rooms in a converted general store or semi-rustic cottages. Rooms start at $175 a night, and the cottages at $290.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page F3 of the New York edition with the headline: A River Town That Grant Once Called Home. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Galena has more sizes and shapes of second homes than there are ice cream flavors available along the town’s well-preserved Main Street.