Welcome to Fort Wayne!

Fort Wayne is a city in northeastern Indiana, USA and the county seat of Allen County. Fort Wayne is Indiana's second largest city after Indianapolis. As of 2007, the city has an estimated population of 248,637, making it the 70th largest city in the U.S.. In 2005, the combined metropolitan population was 565,606. Nearly equidistant from Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit, it has historically served as a transportation and communications center for the region, and an incubator for many products and companies.
Fort Wayne is named after Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The United States Army built this last in a series of forts near the community of Kekionga, the largest of all Miami villages, which is located where the St. Joseph River and St. Marys River join to form the Maumee River.
The Miami nation established the first settlement at the Maumee, St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers in the mid 17th Century. Called Kekionga, the village was the traditional capital of the Miami nation and related Algonquian tribes. Historians believe that around 1676, French priests and missionaries visited the Miami on their way back from a mission at Lake Michigan. In 1680, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle sent a letter to the Governor-General of Canada stating he also stopped there. In the 1680s French traders established a post at the location because it was the main portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The Maumee River is approximately ten miles (16 kilometers) away from the Little River branch of the Wabash River, which flows, in turn, into the Ohio River.
In 1696, Comte de Frontenac appointed Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes as commander of the French outpost in Miami country. The French built the first fort on the site, Fort Miamis, in 1697 as part of a group of forts built between Quebec, Canada and St. Louis. In 1721, a few years after Bissot's death, Fort Miamis was replaced by Fort St. Philippe des Miamis.[6]
Increasing tension between France and the United Kingdom developed over the territory. In 1760, after defeat by British forces in the French and Indian War, the area was ceded to the British Empire. The fort was renamed "Fort Miami." In 1763, various Native American nations rebelled against British rule and retook the fort as part of Pontiac's Rebellion. The Miami regained control of Kekionga, a rule that lasted for more than 30 years.
In 1790, President George Washington ordered the United States Army to secure Indiana. Three battles were fought in Kekionga against Little Turtle and the Miami Confederacy. The Miami forces defeated American army in the first two battles. Anthony Wayne led a third expedition, destroying the village while its warriors were away. When the tribe returned to their destroyed village, Little Turtle decided to negotiate peace. After General Wayne refused it, the tribe was advanced to Fallen Timbers where they were defeated on August 20, 1794. On October 22, 1794, the United States army captured the Wabash-Erie portage from the Miami Confederacy and built a new fort near the three rivers.
Eventually, the portage was replaced by the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1833. Fort Wayne lost national prominence as the railroad system developed in the United States. Yet it remained an important railroad center between New York and Chicago for nearly a century.
On February 22, 1840, the growing city incorporated as the City of Fort Wayne.
Most of the population growth occurred in the 19th century with immigration from Germany and Ireland. The large numbers of Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches reflect this. German-language newspapers were published into the 20th century.