Caterpillar museum in Peoria, Il


 
Dustin Flavell

Dustin Flavell

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Any thoughts on if this is worth the three hour drive one way from Rockford? I am tagging along on my wife's business trip and looking for a few things to do. I am a life long fan of Catterpillar equipment, but want to make sure it's worth going to if I'm going to burn 6 hours round trip to visit. What do you think? Any of y'all been?
 
I did not know that Cat had a museum. I used to run a lot of their equipment until skin cancer took that career away. My favorite was a 1964 955H traxcavator that still had steering clutch sticks in addition to the foot pedals. When we got a 977K model with no more sticks it was like hey this is easy. Every once in a while there would be an abandoned car left on a job site. We would play "catch" with the car tossing it back and forth, bucket to bucket, till we crushed and buried it. If you decide to eat in Peoria, Avanti is pretty good Italian, or ride out to B's drive in Farmington for the best pork tenderloin sandwich in the Midwest.
 
I would definitely go to the CAT museum. I grew up on CAT equipment. My dad & I owned a small construction business until 2008. I operated a D8R.
 
@Bob thanks for the chow recommendation. That pork tenderloin sandwich sounds good.

@Russ that's a big Dozer. I run a D6C around here.
 
Dustin, if you have 2 days to spare you could also hit the John Deere Museum in Moline, if other kinds of historic equipment interests you.

Rockford itself has some interesting museums and historic attractions as well.
 
Thanks for the info Brad. The jd museum is on the list if there is time but I think we might run short. Wife is in Rockford on business, so I may not have the time. Have you been to the CAT visitor center?
 
No, unfortunately I haven't. The only Cat facility I've been to is in Aurora, IL and that was many years ago.

Apparently Cat's planning a major expansion/renovation of its Peoria headquarters so in a few years it'll be quite the showpiece.
 
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