Text on the stone was written by the family who donated the stone marker.
The stone is placed to designate the general area where John Deere first tried his “self-scouring” plow. It can be seen 1/4 mile east of the junction of Kingdom and Lost Nation Roads, on the north side of the road.
Local historian Duane Paulsen writes:
Settlers in this area in the 1830’s discovered that the iron plows they brought with them from the eastern states did not work well in Midwestern soil. In 1837 Grand Detour blacksmith John Deere forged a plow share out of a discarded steel sawmill blade. He brought the plow across the Rock River to the Lewis Crandall farm, which was located near here, to test it on the local soil. It was a success! The plow scoured clean and was the forerunner of the many plows to come afterward.
