ICES adjunct scientist Mike Conlon appointed ICES North site director. ICES North is in development in Sudbury at Health Sciences North Research Institute and will be launched in late 2017.
Although Illinois could not boast having the first steam-powered railroad in the United States or the Midwest (Maryland in 1828 and Ohio in 1836 claimed those honors), residents could brag of being the home state for some of the earliest American carriers.
This association later played to Durant's favor when in 1862 President Lincoln selected Durant's new company, the Union Pacific, and its operation center in Council Bluffs, Iowa as the starting point of the First Transcontinental Railroad.