| Grand Detour | |
| Settlement Type: | CDP |
| Pushpin Map: | USA Illinois Ogle County#USA Illinois |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within Ogle County |
| Coordinates: | 41.8967°N -89.4117°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Illinois |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Ogle |
| Subdivision Type3: | Township |
| Subdivision Name3: | Grand Detour |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1.41 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 1.17 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.24 |
| Elevation Footnotes: | [1] |
| Elevation Ft: | 656 |
| Population Total: | 424 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 362.39 |
| Timezone1: | CST |
| Utc Offset1: | -6 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -5 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 61040 |
| Area Code: | 815 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 17-30705 |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 3.66 |
| Area Land Km2: | 3.03 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.63 |
| Population Density Km2: | 139.95 |
Grand Detour is an unincorporated census-designated place in Ogle County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 429.[3] The village is named after an odd turn in the Rock River, which flows north past the village, rather than its normal southwestern course. John Deere invented the steel plow in Grand Detour, and the John Deere House and Shop is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
Grand Detour was founded in 1835 by Leonard Andrus (1805–1867) of Vermont.[4] In 1836 Andrus welcomed his friend and fellow Vermont native John Deere to the town, where Deere built a house and established a forge. Deere manufactured pitchforks and shovels, and in 1837 he invented the first successful steel plow. The first was sold in 1838.[5]
The John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour is operated by the John Deere Company.[6] The John Deere House and Shop is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it joined that list in 1966, the year the Register was established. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.[7]
The village soon grew to include a dam, race and sawmill, a flour mill and several stores.
In 1847, Rev. Abraham Joseph Warner established an Episcopal parish in Grand Detour, then regarded as one of the most important settlements in the region. Construction began on St. Peter's Episcopal Church in 1849, and the building was completed in 1850. Soon thereafter, Grand Detour lost most of its residents as the railroad developed towns to the east and south. The little stone church closed and remained vacant for almost 50 years. In 1909, as Grand Detour's beauty attracted a growing community of artists, Leonard Andrus's son William repaired the church. Services were held weekly by the priest of nearby Dixon, Illinois. The historic church was restored by a nonprofit community group in 1999, and it is now available for public and private events.[8]
In the mid-1920s Orson Welles spent a few months of the year in the summer resort town of Grand Detour, at a small country hotel that was purchased by his father, Richard Head Welles. The Sheffield Hotel was built in 1865 as a small inn to house workers at the plow factory. It was destroyed in a fire May 14, 1928, shortly after Welles turned 13 years of age.[9]
"It was called Grand Detour because the Rock River circles there — it's almost an island," Welles remembered some 50 years later: