Illinois Valley Regional Airport
airport in Illinois, United States of America
Illinois Valley Regional Airport (IATA: VYS, ICAO: KVYS, FAA LID: VYS), also known as Walter Duncan Field, is a city-owned, public-use airport located 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northwest of the central business district of Peru, a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The airport hosts the TBM Avenger Reunion every year in May.
The airport also has a flying club that offers aircraft rental, flight training, and events such as fly-in breakfasts.
History
Ground was broken for the airport in June 1985. It was due to open in mid October of that year, but poor weather delayed work. Operations at the airport began a couple weeks later on November 1st.
Thrifty Car Rental opened an office at the airport in November 2000.
The airport began hosting the TBM Avenger Reunion in 2016. An OSF Life Flight hangar was also opened that year.
In 2021, the city agreed to the construction of a 5,760-square-foot (535 m2) hangar and the relocation of another to expand an existing hangar.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Illinois Valley Regional Airport” is airport in Illinois, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Illinois, Valley and Regional, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “airport in Illinois, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3084258. Authority coordinates are 41.352, -89.153. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 2000, 2016 and 2021.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Illinois Valley Regional Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Illinois Valley Regional Airport primary sources, Illinois Valley Regional Airport archive and Illinois research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Illinois Valley Regional Airport”?
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- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Illinois Valley Regional Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.