PEORIA, Ill. – Caterpillar, Inc., known today as the world’s largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment, celebrated its 100th anniversary with a company-wide celebration centered at the Caterpillar Visitors Center in downtown Peoria. The celebration, which kicked off with a giant screen live feed of CAT officials ringing the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, included an Antique Tractor Walk that offered a close-up view of some of the company’s most rare vintage machines, including Caterpillar 60 and 20 model tractors.

“You have to wonder if our original founders, C.L. Holt and Benjamin Best, could’ve dreamt of this day,” said CAT public relations lead Henry Vicary, who emceed the celebration of the company’s centennial on April 15, 2025. “They were driven by innovation and awarded over 100 patents that helped design the future of machine technology.”

After machinery maker C.L. Best merged with the Holt Machinery Co. to form CAT in 1925, Best’s “60 Tracklayer” became the Peoria company’s first and best-known track-type tractor, as well as the largest of its era. “The Best 60 is one of the tractors on display in our Antique Tractor Walk. To have these machines here as part of this celebration is very, very special,” Vicary said.

To this day, the tractors produced by CAT contain aspects of Best-CAT 60 engineering. This engineering helped build the Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal, noted CAT’s director of mechanical construction and digital technology, Todd Farmer.

“In 1931 Caterpillar machines clung to a cliff over 700 feet above the Colorado River and they built the Hoover Dam. We don’t just build equipment; we transform what is possible in our world,” Farmer said. “When we see a seemingly impossible problem, we just lean in. Those who built the Hoover Dam and today’s (CAT) team share the same characteristic. They find solutions where others find possibilities.”

For many decades CAT made machinery used not only by road, bridge and dam builders, but farmers. One historic photo on display in the visitors center told the story of Lanny and Antone Gisler, whose Best Model 60 served 40,000 hours of work from 1930 to 1959.

Also, among the rare machinery represented (with either full size or scale-model salesman’s models) on the Antique Tractor Walk was CAT’s Model 20, introduced in 1927. The Model 20 was the first product designed and built by Caterpillar that was not a carryover from Holt or Best. First produced in San Leandro, Calif., production of the Model 20 was moved to the new CAT facility in East Peoria a year later.

Another early CAT tractor used extensively for agricultural production, the D2, is also among those on display. First produced in 1938, the D2 was the smallest diesel-powered track-type tractor available on the market. CAT began producing this model (among others) in response to the “New Deal” programs that were initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate America’s economy during the Great Depression, according to company archives.

“The D2 has already proven to us that it is the most economical farm tractor ever made,” reads a 1938 testimonial from Herbert and Arthur Jesswein, Michigan farmers who had the honor of putting the first D2 tractor into production east of the Mississippi River. “With this track-type tractor, we have no fears of meeting adverse conditions, and with its diesel engine under the hood we know our operating costs are going to be lower than would be possible with a spark-ignition tractor.”

Other historic machinery represented in the Antique Tractor Walk, which is self -guided and reliant on phone QR-readers, includes the CAT 10, CAT D5, Holt 2-Ton, Holt 5-Ton and Holt 75.

With 2024 sales and revenues of $64.8 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is considered the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Peoria served as world headquarters for CAT from 1930 to 2017. The company is currently headquartered in Irving, Texas.

The CAT 100 Antique Tractor Walk, which encompasses areas both inside and outside the museum, is included in the price of admission to the CAT Visitors Center. For more information on days and hours of operation, visit www.caterpillar.com/en/company/visitors-center.html.

To learn more about the tractors featured in the Antique Tractor Walk, visit www.caterpillar.com/en/company/visitors-center/qr-codes.html.