Category: Community Involvement

Local wine is one of the many reasons visitors come to Galena. The Best of Galena innkeepers love to volunteer at the annual “Corkless in Galena” wine festival. Proceeds from the festival support Northern Illinois Wine Growers who continue to evaluate new grape varieties in their experimental vineyard and promote high quality grape production in Northern Illinois and the surrounding area.

NIWG is a non-profit organization with the goal of informing and educating the public about new grape varieties that have been developed specifically for our region. NIWG is primarily comprised of winemakers and grape growers at both the professional and amateur levels, each contributing to the understanding of this developing industry and its needs. The professional levels provide invaluable insight and appreciation of the industry’s more current needs for success from both the agricultural and vintner business perspectives, while the amateur levels provide an avenue for experimentation in meeting future needs. NIWG is fortunate enough to have been gifted an experimental vineyard for the last 16 years that currently has 25 grape varieties that are being grown and researched. Quality and production levels are monitored for each variety. At harvest time, the amateur winemakers experiment with various winemaking methods and the blending of varieties in search of new regional wines made from our local grapes.

The Galena Foundation was formed more than 30 years ago by a group of Galenians wishing to preserve the heritage and history of Galena. Today it is guided by the Foundation’s mission to initiate and/or provide financial support for community projects which preserve, enhance, or nurture Galena’s heritage, culture and quality of life. Best of Galena is proud to sponsor The Galena Foundation in their efforts to keep the historic beauty of Galena alive for the visitors of the area to enjoy for generations to come.

One of their most anticipated fundraising events of the year is the “Galena Foundation Concert” held at Turner Hall featuring Hunter Fuerste and His American Vintage Orchestra.

History is without a doubt a huge part of the tourism here in Galena and the innkeepers of Best of Galena are all involved in some part of keeping that history alive. Through our historic houses and telling the story of them to traditions from the past and even by participating in living history, we make sure to keep Galena’s exciting past interesting and relevant even today.

The Galena History Museum is an amazing asset to the community in helping to share the rich history of our area with visitors to Galena. Best of Galena proudly supports the museum’s quest to keep sharing our history.

Many of our guests enjoy a visit to the museum and we can even arrange tickets prior to your arrival to make your experience as seamless as possible.

Homemade cakes and pies are donated by our innkeepers to Grant’s Pie Auction each spring during Grant’s birthday celebration, one of the most popular fund raisers for the museum.

In addition to tasty treats, we also sponsored part of the newest exhibit at the museum, “Port of Galena: 1858”. This models the city as the thriving river town it was in 1858. Visitors can turn the lights on in the old Banking House on Bench Street to see the building that we have sponsored.

The Galena History Museum is a great partner for us and our guests and we look forward to continuing our support for them as they continue sharing Galena’s storied history.