Wapakoneta ( WAH pə kə NET ə, commonly shortened to “Wapak”) is a city in Auglaize County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Auglaize River, the city is about 56 miles (90 km) north of Dayton and 83 miles (134 km) south of Toledo. The population was 9,957 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Wapakoneta micropolitan area, which is included in the Lima, Van Wert, Celina combined statistical area.
At a Glance
- County: Auglaize County
- County seat of Auglaize County
- State: Ohio
History of Wapakoneta
In 1748, the French built a trading post (Fort au Glaize, also known as "Wapakoneta Trading Post" or "AuGlaize Trading Post") about a half mile northeast of the future site of Wapakoneta. After being re established in 1760 as "Francis Duchouquet’s Trading Post," the British later took over this territory after the French ceded it following defeat in the Seven Years’ War. Neither they nor the later Americans (after independence) built a succeeding fort here. French Canadian traders later reestablished a trading post at the site in 1784, which was abandoned after the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
The city itself was established in the 1780s as a Shawnee settlement called "Waughpaughkonnetta" (possibly derived from the Shawnee word "Wa po’kanite," meaning "the place of white bones"). After the Shawnee tribe was removed to Kansas in 1831, Wapakoneta was platted in 1833 and later named as the seat of Auglaize County in 1848.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Wapakoneta, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.