Charles Mound, Illinois 1,235 feet

Climbed 9/02/2006

Charles Mound is located on the farmland of Wayne and Jean Wuebbels. They allow highpointers to visit over a few weekends each year. We conquered Charles Mound on Labor Day weekend, as a side trip on our way to the Toronto International Film Festival. Surprisingly, we did not encounter any other highpointers like we did when we went to Jerimoth Hill in Rhode Island.

We flew into Chicago and drove west across the state to the cute tourist town of Galena. The drive took us through the extended suburbs of Chicago and into the rolling farmland of northwestern Illinois. This area is one of the few parts of the Midwest that was not scoured flat by glaciers during the last Ice Age, making it higher and more hilly than surrounding areas. Galena is a historic port town tucked in the hills above the upper Mississippi River.

Bucolic Illinois

We stayed at the DeSoto House hotel, whose guests have included Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Williams Jennings Bryan. The hotel is a nice combination of old-world style and modern amenities, located in the heart of downtown Galena. We had a room overlooking the closed courtyard of the hotel, which made for a very quiet night. We awoke to the sounds of old-time piano and the smell of coffee and waffles wafting up from the courtyard dining room. M-m-m-m, delightful.

After a Sunday morning run through the streets and parks of Galena, we drove to the town of Scales Mound and followed Jean Wuebbels' directions to their property. The route took us along a rural road — appropriately named Charles Mound Road — past farms and upscale Midwestern homes oriented to take advantage of the view. We paid close attention to the road markers because Jean's directions said:

Our lane is not marked. There is no sign that says "This is Charles Mound" or "Wayne and Jean live here". There is, however, a blue highway emergency sign. It says "688".

The unmarked gate at 688

We parked at the unmarked gate next to the 688 sign. We walked along a path between corn fields and cow pastures, past a fishing hole and the Wuebbels' barn. The only sounds were our footsteps, a slight breeze through the corn, and the lowing of cows. Very peaceful.

Cows observe our progress

We reached the highpoint marker in fifteen or twenty minutes. We took our pictures, signed the summit register, and spent a few minutes admiring the bucolic view of Wisconsin to the north.

Charles Mound, our 24th state highpoint

We retraced our steps back to the car, arriving just in time to avoid the first drops of rain. As we drove along the old stagecoach road back to Galena, we watched the clouds roll in and turn the sprinkles into a downpour. We spent the afternoon dodging the rain as we darted in and out of the shops in Galena. The weather cleared in the late afternoon, allowing us to take a sunset stroll through the residential district on the hill behind Main Street.

Evelyn shopping in downtown Galena

Our trip to Charles Mound was a perfect illustration of the motivation behind our highpointing hobby. We spent a very pleasant day in a place we would never have known about otherwise.