Galena, Illinois for mayor and aldermen on May 24, 1841, replacing the board of trustees; Charles S. Hempstead was elected the first mayor with 185 of the 356 votes cast. The first census was also held that year, finding 1,900 inhabitants. By 1845 Galena was producing nearly 27,000 tons of lead ore and Jo Daviess County was producing 80 percent of the lead in the United States. Once one of the most important cities in the state, Galena was a hub on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and St. Paul. Due to erosion, the Galena River is now inaccessible to steamboats.
Metal subsurface mines. In some cases, the sale price of the metal/s involved make it economically feasible to mine lower concentration sources. Once the ore is mined, the metals must be extracted, usually by chemical or electrolytic reduction. Pyrometallurgy uses high temperatures to convert ore into raw metals, while hydrometallurgy employs aqueous chemistry for the same purpose. The methods used depend on the metal and their contaminants. When a metal ore is an ionic compound of that metal and a non-metal, the ore must usually be smelted—heated with a reducing agent—to extract the pure metal. Many common metals, such as iron,