Fort Wayne, Indiana is the county seat of Allen County. In the year 2010, the Census recorded the population as 253, 691 and it came in as the 2nd largest city in Indiana, and the 74th biggest city in the USA. The municipality of Fort Wayne is located in the northeastern section of the state of Indiana and is about 80 km or 50 miles south of the border in Michigan and 29 km or 18 miles west of the border within the state of Ohio.
Fort Wayne is the main city within the Fort Wayne Metropolitan Statistical Area. This is an area which includes Wells, Allen and Whitley counties. Their combined population is estimated at 414,315. In addition, the Fort Wayne-Auburn-Huntington CSA is another combined statistical area that comprises Huntington, Adams, DeKalb and Noble counties for a total population of about 610,000 people.
The city of Fort Wayne was constructed in 1794 by the US Army, in what was the last in a series of forts constructed near the Miami Indian Village of Kekionga. It was constructed under the guidance of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who was an American Revolutionary War statesman. The fort was named in Wayne's honor and was established at the confluence of the Maumee, St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers. The city of Fort Wayne became a trading post for European settlers. During 1823, the village was platted and following the completion of the Erie and Wabash Canals, the region saw tremendous growth.
The Miami first nation established a settlement at Kekionga in the mid-17th century. The settlement was located along the rivers St. Mary's, Maumee and St. Joseph. The village served the Miami nation and several other Algonquian tribes. It is estimated by historians that about the year 1676, French missionaries and priests visited the Miami people as they were returning from a mission at Lake Michigan. In 1680, a letter was sent to the Governor-General of Canada from René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, stating that he too had stopped there. The French traders established a post during the 1680s, because it was the crucial portage between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
The city of Fort Wayne developed into a main manufacturing hub during the mid 20th century. Certain companies like for example Magnavox, General Electric, International Harvester and Westinghouse were important in the local economy. Furthermore, Essex Wire, Rea Magnet Wire and Phelps Dodge made the biggest concentration of copper wire production within the world in the Second World War. When the century drew to a close, the decrease of manufacturing jobs nationwide, along with improvements in technology led the city of Fort Wayne to be counted amongst other cities situated within the Rust Belt.
Over recent decades, the economy within the city of Fort Wayne has diversified to include insurance, security and defense, health care, and education. Recently, the hospitality and service sector has likewise grown. In 2006, there were 5.4 million tourists who visited and spent more than $415 million within Fort Wayne.
The city of Fort Wayne has become the headquarters for businesses including: Steel Dynamics, Do It Best, Medical Protective, North American Van Lines, Vera Bradley, Genteq, Rea Magnet Wire and Sweetwater Sound. The only Fortune 500 company is Steel Dynamics.