There’s no better way to get an eye-opening and up-close look at CAT equipment over the years than to visit the company’s museum in Peoria, Ill. The 50,000-sq. ft. facility is loaded with historic machines, design stations, four theaters, eight exhibit galleries and memorabilia documenting the company’s 90-year history.

     Most impressive may be the 23-ft. tall 260-ton 797F mining truck that greets you on entering the museum doors. Almost five times taller than a modern SUV, the 797F boasts a 4,000-hp. engine and wheels larger than a two-car garage. Take a virtual ride in the 797F by viewing a 9-min. video shown inside the truck’s cargo box theater, which is large enough to hold more than 40 comfortable seats. Viewers get a driver’s seat view of the giant mining rig at work.

     The museum has dozens of other videos and interactive modules that show the equipment working and how it’s engineered and manufactured. Simulators show firsthand what it’s like to operate machines like real operators do.

     The company’s 90-year history began when Holt Manufacturing and the C.L. Best Tractor Company merged to form Caterpillar. Fully restored Holt and Best tractors are at the museum, along with crawlers, excavators, and other equipment made by CAT over the years. The company has a proud history of making equipment that helped build San Francisco’s cable car system, widened the Panama Canal and produced paving machines that built roads around the world. Other displays detail CAT’s equipment used during WWII and its use of 3D technology to design and build machines, engines and factories.

     Students will especially be interested in how STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is integral to the company’s success and offers numerous career paths worldwide.

     The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed on major holidays.

     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Caterpillar Visitors Center, 110 SW Washington St., Peoria, Ill. 61602 (ph 309-675-0606; www.caterpillar.com).