The Galena–Chicago trail was a stagecoach route located in northern Illinois that ran from the mid-to-late 1830s until . As indicated by its name, the route linked Chicago, located in the northeast of the state, with Galena which was located in the lead mining district of the northwest. The Chicago-Galena trail includes the "Stagecoach Trail" that runs between Galena and Lena, Illinois. East of Lena the stage route follows U.S. Route 20 and Business U.S. Route 20 through Eleroy, Freeport and Rockford to Belvidere. This road began as the old State Road number 2 established on 15 January 1836 and laid out by June 1837. Early inns were log structures similar to the houses in the area. They were soon replaced by wood frame, brick or stone buildings with better accommodations. Several historic stone stagecoach inns remain along the trail in Jo Daviess and Stephenson Counties. These include the Old Stone Hotel (1851) now the Warren Community Building; the Thomas S. French house, a residence southeast of Waddams Grove; Dodd's Inn (1848) a residence on Lena Street in Lena; the Stage Inn east of Eleroy; and Tisdel Inn (1852) a residence west of Freeport. History The line traced its beginnings to as early as 1835 as a series of smaller trails, all operated by distinct stagecoach owners. A single trail linking Chicago to Galena was formally established in 1839 by John Frink and Martin Walker, who later established Frink, Walker & Company in 1840. Frink & Walker expanded their pre-existing trail from Chicago to Galena, putting a competing Chicago-Freeport stagecoach line run by J.D. Winters out of business. Frink & Walker ran two daily coaches that carried mail, passengers and small parcels from Chicago to Galena. A published sketch of the Frink, Walker & Company General Stage Office in Chicago shows a Concord style coach with a four−horse hitch. Concord coaches were brightly painted and attracted a lot of attention when the stage arrived in town. The stage office, located at Lake and Dearborn Streets as early as 1833, appeared on a map of Chicago landmarks from that year. Naperville, a crossroad of several stage routes in the 1830s, was the first major stop west of Chicago. After 1848 coaches could travel on the Southwestern Plank Road (now Ogden Avenue), a toll road made of wooden planks laid crosswise on long timbers to form a roadbed on what had been