Galena, Illinois called Galena "La Pointe" and early Americans adopted this name as "The Point". Early documentation officially records the name as "Fever River", an early name for the Galena River, though it does not appear that this name was commonly used. George Davenport, a retired colonel in the United States Army, successfully shipped Galena's first boatload of lead ore down the Mississippi River in 1816. Three years later, Jesse W. Shull built a trading post. The Thomas H. January family, who arrived in 1821 from Maysville, Kentucky, are considered the first permanent American settlers. The next year, the US Department of
Galena, Alaska The City of Galena is incorporated as a first-class city, governed by a city council. The city's mayor is Jon Korta. The Louden Tribal Council is elected to represent the local Athabascan Native community. The council's tribal chief is Jenny Pelkola. The City of Galena operated a full-time police department. There is an Alaska State Troopers post in Galena with two troopers and a trooper-pilot. Galena has a volunteer Rescue Squad composed of Alaska Emergency Trauma Technicians (ETT) and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), and a volunteer fire department which recently received new advanced firefighting apparatus from the U.S. Air Force