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Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne is a city in northeastern Indiana and seat of Allen County. The city is located where the Saint Marys and Saint Joseph rivers join to form the Maumee River. Situated in a fertile farm area, Fort Wayne is a manufacturing center producing products such as electronic equipment and components, trucks, automotive parts, and magnet wire. The insurance and health-care industries are also major employers. Fort Wayne International Airport is the hub of air transportation.
Fort Wayne is home to Concordia Theological Seminary (1846), Saint Francis College (1890), Indiana Institute of Technology (1930), Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne (1964), Lutheran College of Health Professions (1987), Taylor University, Fort Wayne Campus (1992), a campus of Indiana Wesleyan University (1920), and several institutions offering two-year degrees.
Cultural institutions include a library and museum containing a major private collection of items associated with Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States; Science Central, which teaches about science, mathematics, and technology through hands-on activities; an extensive children's zoo with animals from around the world; and art and historical museums. Fort Wayne has a philharmonic orchestra, a ballet company, and several theater groups. The grave of American pioneer John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed, is located in the city. Fort Wayne's principal annual event is the Three Rivers Festival, held in mid-July.
The city's strategic location at a river junction was the site of the chief village of the Miami people. The village and location drew the French, who built a fortified trading post there in the early 1700s. Control of the site was contested by the British and the French, until it was taken by the British in 1760. Modern Fort Wayne grew from a fort that was established in 1794 by General Anthony Wayne, who had defeated the Miami after they resisted white intrusion, thus opening the area to white settlement. Fort Wayne incorporated as a city in 1840.
Industry grew after construction of the Wabash-Erie Canal was completed in 1840 and the arrival of the railroad in the mid-1850s. In the 1920s the city emerged as a financial center with the growth of regionally important banks and insurance companies. Over the years Fort Wayne has carried several nicknames; in 1982 a new one was added when townspeople worked through several days building sandbag barriers to protect the city against floodwaters, becoming the "the city that saved itself."
Fort Wayne covers a land area of 161.1 sq km (62.2 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 240 m (788 ft).
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