ABSTRACT
Decatur sits in the middle of Macon County, on the high prairie, halfway between Champaign-Urbana and Springfield. When the interstate system was planned, Decatur was one of the few free-standing medium-sized cities left out of the system. Decatur has had trouble moving to the technological frontier, but may be able to leapfrog to the cybernetic via the manufacturing route, emphasizing computerized manufacturing. Archer, Daniels, Midland, Caterpillar, and other major national and multinational agribusiness companies are visibly active, however, not always in a positive manner given the labor troubles of the early 1990s. Changes in agriculture itself have included higher prices for what farmers need and the same prices for what they produce. Decatur's urban-industrial base of agriculture and automobile-related industry kept it in prosperity for a long period of time. That prosperity kept it, too, in the urban industrial era when plans should have been made for subsequent frontiers.
