Kokomo

Kokomo, Ind.: Seiberling Mansion

Kokomo, city, seat (1844) of Howard county, north-central Indiana, U.S., on Wildcat Creek, 52 miles (84 km) north of Indianapolis. In 1844 David Foster, a trader, laid out the village of Kokomo (named for a Miami chieftain) on part of the reservation once held by Chief La Fontaine. The settlement’s early growth was hampered by malarial swamps in the area, which were soon drained. The Peru and Indianapolis Railroad arrived in 1853, further stimulating the community’s growth. The modern city dates from 1886, when natural gas was discovered along the creek. The subsequent 10-year boom, which attracted many industries, collapsed when the gas ran out. The city was revived economically through pioneer work in the design and manufacture of the “horseless carriage” by two local men, Elwood Haynes and Elmer Apperson. A monument east of the city marks the place where one of the first clutch-driven automobiles with electric ignition in the United States was given its initial road test on July 4, 1894. Metallurgical experiments by Haynes paved the way for other industries, including the manufacture of stainless steel and a durable cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloy known as Stellite. By the mid-1920s competitors’ mass-production techniques had forced Haynes and Apperson to close their factories. Local citizens laboured to bring in new concerns, and, by the beginning of World War II, Kokomo was again an important manufacturing centre (electronics, machinery, automobile parts, aluminum die castings). It is the seat of Indiana University Kokomo (1945). The Howard County Museum, with historical exhibits about the Kokomo area, is located in the 1890 Seiberling Mansion, which also housed the university. The city’s Highland Park contains a covered bridge built in 1875. The Elwood Haynes Museum, in the inventor’s former home, exhibits many of his designs. Grissom Air Reserve Base is 10 miles (16 km) north. Inc. 1865. Pop. (2000) 46,113; Kokomo Metro Area, 101,541; (2010) 45,468; Kokomo Metro Area, 98,688.