Streator is a city in LaSalle and Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately southwest of Chicago in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population of Streator was 12,500. History Although settlements had occasionally existed in the area, they were not permanent. In 1824, surveyors for the Illinois and Michigan Canal which would extend from Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood to the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, arrived in this area of the Vermillion River, followed by homesteaders by the 1830s. In 1861, miner John O'Neill established a trading post called "Hardscrabble" (ironically an early name for the Bridgeport neighborhood), supposedly because he watched loaded animals struggle up the river's banks. Another name for the new settlement was "Unionville". Streator received its current name to honor Worthy S. Streator, an Ohio industrialist who financed the region's first coal mining operation. Streator received a town charter in 1868 and incorporated as a city in 1882. In 1882 Col. Ralph Plumb was elected as its first mayor. Streator's early growth was due to the coal mine, as well as a major glass manufacturer and its status as a midwestern railroad hub. Today Streator's economy is led by heavy-equipment manufacturer Vactor, food distributor U.S. Foodservice and glass bottle manufacturer Owens-Illinois. The city is the hometown of Clyde Tombaugh, who in 1930 discovered the dwarf planet Pluto, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt; and George "Honey Boy" Evans, who wrote "In the Good Old Summer Time." Streator hosts annual events including Streator Park Fest; an Independence Day celebration, the Roamer Cruise Night and the Light Up Streator celebration. Streator is governed by a Manager–council style of government. It maintains police and fire departments as well as a public works system. Its current mayor is Jimmie Lansford. Pre-settlement Settlement in the region began with the Kaskaskia tribe of the Illiniwek Confederation. This Native American tribe's Grand Village was located on the north bank of the Illinois River in nearby Utica, Illinois. The Kaskaskia "were hunters and gatherers, farmers, warriors and traders." The Illiniwek were the last remnants of the Mississippian culture. French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first Europeans to enter this region during a visit to the Grand Village in 1673.