Clyde Tombaugh Birthplace Marker

A small bronze marker downtown commemorates Clyde Tombaugh, the Streator-born astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930 at the age of 24. The plaque is easy to miss — it sits on a brick plinth near City Park — but it is the closest thing the town has to a tourist pilgrimage site for anyone with an interest in the history of astronomy.

The Streator Public Library keeps a small display of Tombaugh memorabilia and books, and the local astronomy club occasionally runs star parties timed to coincide with the anniversary of the discovery in February.

things to do sight
A story
Clyde Tombaugh was born on a farm just outside Streator in 1906 and grew up grinding his own telescope mirrors on the kitchen table. He was working as a young observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona when, on 18 February 1930, he spotted a faint moving dot on a pair of photographic plates — Pluto. After Pluto was demoted to dwarf-planet status in 2006, Streator's marker stayed up, defiantly listing him as the discoverer of the ninth planet.