Biohazard Cleanup Near North Peru Peru, IL

Peru is a city in LaSalle County (with a small part in Bureau County) on the Illinois River, and together with its twin city LaSalle it forms the core of the Illinois Valley.

Peru's first settler, John Hays, arrived in 1830, and after organizing as a borough in 1838 the town was incorporated as a city on March 13, 1851.

The first steamboat, the Traveler, reached Peru in 1831, and Peru grew into a busy steamboat port at the head of navigation on the Illinois River.

Peru is the western terminus of the historic Illinois and Michigan Canal, which linked the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River system when it opened in 1848.

Peru was once known as "Clock City" — the Western Clock Company, later Westclox, was making over a million alarm clocks a year by 1905 and at its height produced nearly 2 million clocks and watches annually with more than 4,000 employees before the factory closed in 1980.

The old Westclox complex is now home to the Westclox Museum and the headquarters of Carus Corporation, whose Carus Chemical Company, founded in 1915, is one of the world's largest makers of potassium permanganate.

Coal was mined in at least four mines around Peru between 1857 and 1949, and together with the river and two railroads it powered the city's industrial growth.

Peru had a population of 9,896 in the 2020 census.

Peru had 4,420 households in the 2020 census.

Starved Rock State Park, one of Illinois' most visited natural attractions, is located just 5 miles southeast of Peru.