PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2022

syrupmakers, one paper manufacturer, a vinegar producer, a broom-and-brush company, a corn product refinery, a yeast plant, a chemical-and-solvent plant, a drug-and-insecticide company, two dry ice plants, six packinghouses and 14 dairies. As we know today, of course, the Ag Lab was no mere “bridge to nowhere” pork project. Consequential discoveries started with the mass-production of penicillin during World War II. Just for that extra kisses with extra eider-down on them. Heaps of love. Pops. Part of a Dirksen letter home I got a Xmas present this morning. A big one. Million dollars. What!…It’s true. The Secretary of Agriculture just announced that the new research laboratory will go to Peoria. Know what that means. Million dollars every year for payroll will be $600,000 and that theywill employ about 250 people. That means new houses etc. Now that’s what you call a real Xmas present. Makes me a bit happy. I talked to wallace Saturday and said “We must have that laboratory.”

confided that hemet withWallace days before and told him, “Wemust have that laboratory.” He described the news as “a real Xmas present” that would drive employment and home construction in Peoria. Dirksen’s was also among the few speeches at the layingof the cornerstone for the lab in October 1939, which was broadcast to a nationwide audience. Even with all those advantages, it helped to have a legitimate case for bringing the lab here. The Peoria Association of Commerce set up a committee that crafted a 500 page proposal showing why Peoria shouldwin out over nearby competitors such as Urbana, Danville and Decatur. Bradley Polytechnic Institute pledged to donate land from Lydia Moss Bradley’s estate for the site. The Peoria-Pekin region touted itself as “the logical cross-roads of farm production, industrial utilization, central location and transportation facilities,” according to the association. That meant links to four distilleries, four canneries, three breweries, three feed manufacturers, two mills, three malt

Dirksen would go on to help secure funding for an expansion of the lab in the 1960s, and successors to his House seat would look out for the lab’s interests. Rep. Bob Michel resisted proposals by President Jimmy Carter to slash funding for the site. Years later, when President Donald Trump called to eliminate funds for the lab, Reps. Cheri Bustos andDarin LaHood and Sen. Dick Durbin would come together on a bipartisan basis to keep the lab funded and then to push for expanded research space for climate-resilient crops. Eighty-two years after opening, the lab’s staff of about 250 continues its research on projects affecting the wider world, from biofuels to plant derivatives that reduce cholesterol. A relatively recent point of emphasis is the development of crops that are more resilient to the effects of global climate change.

Chris Kaergard is communications manager and associate historian at Pekin’s Dirksen Congressional Center. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor

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