Decatur (Illinois)

Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city was founded in 1829 and is along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2015, the city's estimated population was 73,254.The city is home of private Millikin University and public Richland Community College. Decatur has vast industrial and agricultural processing production, including the North American headquarters of agricultural conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland, international agribusiness Tate & Lyle's largest corn-processing plant, and the designing and manufacturing facilities for Caterpillar Inc.'s wheel-tractor scrapers, off-highway trucks, and large mining trucks.GeographyDecatur is located at . Decatur is three hours southwest of Chicago, 40 miles due east of Springfield, the state capital, and two hours northeast of St. Louis by car.According to the 2010 census, Decatur has an area of 46.91sqmi, of which 42.22sqmi is land and 4.69sqmi is water. Lakes include Lake Decatur, formed in 1923 by the damming of the Sangamon River.