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Wapakoneta is a city in Auglaize County whose name comes from a Shawnee word often interpreted as 'place of white bones.'

Before it was an American town, Wapakoneta was a major Shawnee settlement where chiefs including Black Hoof and Blue Jacket held council in a council house on the site of today's city.

Wapakoneta was platted in 1833 and became the county seat of the newly formed Auglaize County in 1848.

Wapakoneta is the hometown of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, who was born on a farm near the city on August 5, 1930.

Armstrong's family moved into Wapakoneta in 1944, settling at 601 West Benton Street, and he graduated from the local Blume High School in 1947.

Armstrong learned to fly as a teenager at the local Port Koneta Airport, and the Aeronca Champ airplane he trained in is now preserved in the town's museum.

The Armstrong Air & Space Museum, built to resemble a future moon base with a great white dome, opened in Wapakoneta on July 20, 1972 — exactly three years after the Apollo 11 landing.

Wapakoneta celebrates its space heritage every summer with the Summer Moon Festival centered on the museum and downtown.

The Auglaize County Courthouse in downtown Wapakoneta is a Berea sandstone landmark completed in 1894 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wapakoneta had 9,957 residents at the 2020 census, living in roughly 4,379 households, and about 68% of its homes were owner-occupied according to Census Bureau figures for 2020–2024.