In 1836, John Deere, a blacksmith recently transplanted from Vermont, set up shop in the small Rock River town of Grand Detour, Illinois. Deere, who was enterprising and innovative, met many disheartened farmers who were discouraged by their efforts to cultivate the sticky Midwestern soil.
Today, visitors to the John Deere Historic Site can watch a blacksmith at work in a replica of the blacksmith’s shop where John Deere made that historic plow. The site also features the home John Deere built, a gift shop, and an archaeological exhibit that shows the site of John Deere’s original blacksmith shop.
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