Wapakoneta City

Wapakoneta City Municipal Water Report Info

Mastodon remains have been discovered multiple times throughout Auglaize County prior to 1880. The first complete skeleton was unearthed in autumn 1870 in Clay Township, approximately 2.5 miles east of St. Johns, when workers were excavating through the Muchinippi swamp. The bog measured roughly eight feet deep, with the upper portion consisting of peat moss and the lower two-thirds comprised of marly soil.

The fossil remains were positioned in a way suggesting the mastodon had become trapped in marshy terrain, with its head and tusks pointing upward and the right foreleg extended forward as if attempting to escape. Researchers estimated the creature measured 19.5 feet from tusk base to tail, with tusks extending 12 feet and standing approximately 13-14 feet tall.

In December 1874, also in Clay Township, drainage workers uncovered a partial skeleton of an even larger mastodon. A third specimen was discovered by surveyor Samuel Craig in January 1878 while working in Washington Township.

Native American History
The land now comprising Auglaize County was originally claimed primarily by the Miami Tribe, though Wyandotte hunting parties occasionally ventured into the territory. After General George Rogers Clark destroyed the Miami village of Pickawillamy (near present-day Springfield, Ohio) in 1782, the tribe relocated to Indiana.

Almost immediately following the Miami departure, the Shawnee tribe, having been displaced from the Carolinas and Georgia, established settlements near the Auglaize River and constructed their renowned Council House at what is now Wapakoneta. The British frequently supplied weapons to the Shawnee from Detroit and Canada.

The Wapakoneta Council House gathered some of the most significant Native American leaders of the era, including Blue Jacket (Weyapiersenwah), his son James Blue Jacket, Black Hoof (Catahecassa), Tecumseh, The Prophet, Peter Cornstalk, Little Turtle, Little Snake, Captain Logan, and others.

Following the Treaty of Greenville, tribal groups began migrating westward to Missouri. The final relocation occurred in 1832 when James Blue Jacket, who had established a prosperous alcohol trade, departed with the last group.