Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
GALENA
GALENA. Once valuable ore that attracted Julien DUBUQUE to this region. The official mineral of Missouri and Wisconsin, galena is a compound of LEAD with the chemical symbol PbS.
In its purest state, galena is 13.4 percent sulfur and 86.6 percent LEAD by weight. Because galena frequently contains silver, it is often processed for both minerals. MINING galena was one of the earliest sources of wealth in eastern Iowa. Galena, used in the production of SHOT, was also the crystal by which old crystal radio sets were tuned.