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.
Mineral Exploration Research Centre deposits, volcanology, geochemistry, and alteration associated with hydrothermal copper-zine-(gold) volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits, structure, geochemistry, and alteration associated with hydrothermal orogenic lode gold deposits, mineralogy, geochemistry, and genesis of rare-element and rare-metal pegmatites, and the sedimentology of Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) Pb-Zn deposits and placer Au and U deposits. MERC and the Harquail School of Earth Sciences are a world-leaders in mineral deposits education, offering a Co-Op BSc in Mineral Exploration program, hosting the annual PDAC-sponsored Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop, offering a fully modular ("block") Applied MSc degree in Mineral Exploration, and offering a PhD in Mineral Exploration and Precambrian