Wapakoneta is a city in and the county seat of Auglaize County, Ohio, United States with a population of 9,474 as of the 2000 U.S. census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Wapakoneta, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Lima-Van Wert-Wapakoneta, Ohio Combined Statistical Area. The community is served by the Wapakoneta City School District.
The city is the birthplace of Neil Alden Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon; the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum is located in Wapakoneta. Oscar-winning screenwriter Dudley Nichols and romance novel writer Jennifer Crusie were also born in the city.
Wapakoneta is a sister city to Lengerich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Wapakoneta was an important site to the Ottawa Native Americans prior to leaving Ohio. By 1798, the Shawnee Native Americans had made Wapakoneta their headquarters. By 1808, there were reports of more than five hundred Shawnees, Senecas, and Mingo Native Americans living at Wapakoneta, including Black Hoof.
The Native Americans of Wapakoneta adopted the agricultural methods that the missionaries from the Society of Friends had introduced to them. The Native Americans worked to prove that they had indeed adopted the life of the white settlers. Wapakoneta was the location of the first sawmill and gristmill in northwest Ohio. In 1810, the United States sent a government agent to help the Native Americans. This did not last since the federal government removed the agent for failing to submit appropriate paperwork.
The Shawnees and Senecas continued to live at Wapakoneta until the United States forced them to leave in 1831. The Treaty of Wapakoneta and the Treaty of Lewistown resulted in the forced removal of the Shawnees and Senecas to Kansas.
White settlers quickly replaced the native population. In 1848, the Ohio legislature created Auglaize County out of parts of Mercer and Allen Counties. Early county voters chose Wapakoneta as the county seat in a disputed contest with rival town Saint Marys. For the next 150 years, Auglaize County residents primarily sustained themselves through agriculture, although several additional industries existed in the city by the late nineteenth century. During the 1880s, an oil and natural gas drilling industry arose. Wapakoneta’s 2,765 residents also claimed to produce more butter churns than any other single location in the United States during this same time period. In 2000, more than nine thousand people called Wapakoneta home. Many residents found employment at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company or Amcast. Among Wapakoneta’s most famous inhabitants is Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum, operated by the Ohio Historical Society, is located in Wapakoneta.