Readers who travel through the state of Illinois may be
interested to know about the John Deere Historic Site, a museum
located in Grand Detour, near Dixon, about. Deere was born in 1904
in Rutland, Vermont and began his career as a blacksmith in
Middlebury, Vermont. In the mid-1830’s, Vermont’s business
conditions became depressed and Deere moved to Grand Detour, and
immediately began work there.
Deere studied the inadequacies of the cast iron plows used at
that time in Illinois, and designed a new kind of plow in 1837,
using the steel from a broken saw blade.
Initially Deere plows were made from available steel, and
marketed after production. As demand increased, he began importing
steel from England and in 1847 he moved to Moline, Illinois. By
1850, production had reached 1,600 plows a year and the steel was
coming from Pittsburgh. The success of Deere’s plow, of course
was a key factor in opening the West for agricultural development
and settlement.
The John Deere Foundation maintains buildings of the original
Deere property in Grand Detour to interpret the historical
importance of the ‘plow that unlocked the prairie’ and the
life of the blacksmith who built it.
The complex includes an archaeological exhibition on the exact
site of the original blacksmith shop, the Deere house authentically
furnished to the 1830’s, a visitor’s center and a
reconstructed blacksmith’s shop with working forge.
The John Deere Historic Site is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., March 1 to November 30 and admission is free. The location is
R.R. #3, Grand Detour, Dixon, Illinois 61021 and telephone is
815-652-4551.
