I just got back from a brief vacation. We often find we need to get away from our day jobs and other concerns for a while, and just be tourists. In this case, we took a short driving trip through south-west Wisconsin to Galena, Illinois.

The entire area was rich in lead and zinc deposits, and during the first half of the 19th century, the region was filled with boom towns and miners, and all that those two things attract. Galena was lovely; a thriving tourist town now, it had seen years of decay and despair as the town dwindled from the second-largest city in Illinois to a town of just a couple of thousand hardy souls. As the home of Civil War General and 18th President of the United States, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Galena capitalizes to the greatest extent possible on Grant's connection to the town, and why not? Few towns can boast such a notable, historic, and influential figure.

But that isn't what caught my attention on this trip. No sir; I was captivated by something in the tiny Wisconsin town of Shullsburg...
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