Dayton (pop. 137,644; met. area pop. 814,049), a large city in Ohio, is called the Birthplace of Aviation. Dayton gained that nickname because Orville and Wilbur Wright, who invented the first successful airplane, lived in the city. Dayton lies in the Miami River Valley in southwestern Ohio.
Settlers from Cincinnati founded Dayton in 1796. They chose the site because three major rivers—the Mad, the Great Miami, and the Stillwater—flow together there. This location makes Dayton a natural center of water transportation. The settlers named their town for Jonathan Dayton, the youngest signer of the Constitution of the United States.
Description.
Dayton, the county seat of Montgomery County, covers 57 square miles (148 square kilometers). The Dayton metropolitan area occupies 1,290 square miles (3,341 square kilometers) and consists of Greene, Miami, and Montgomery counties.
Health care and other service industries employ many of Dayton’s workers. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which stands just outside Dayton, is the area’s largest employer.
A major tourist attraction in the Dayton area is the National Museum of the United States Air Force, at the air base. The museum features hundreds of planes and missiles. Dayton also has an art institute and a children’s museum. Educational institutions in the city include the University of Dayton and Wright State University.
Government.
Dayton has a council-manager form of government. The council is called the City Commission. Dayton’s voters elect the five commission members to four-year terms. The commission hires a city manager to carry out its policies.
History.
Miami and Shawnee Indians lived in the Dayton area before white settlers first arrived in 1796. During the 1800’s, the city grew into a market and transportation center. Many factories were built in the 1800’s, creating new jobs. The city’s population rose from 38,678 in 1880 to 116,577 in 1910.
In March 1913, heavy rains caused the Mad, Great Miami, and Stillwater rivers to rise and flood the city. The flood killed more than 300 people and caused about $100 million in damage. Later that year, the city adopted the council-manager form of government, with a professional city manager hired to handle the problems caused by the flood. The new system of government took effect in 1914, and Dayton became the first U.S. city with more than 100,000 people to adopt it.
The flood also led to the formation of the Miami Conservancy District in 1915. This agency constructed five dams upstream from Dayton between 1918 and 1922. Today, Dayton and the Miami River Valley have one of the world’s most effective flood-control systems.
During the 1900’s, Dayton established itself as a major manufacturing center. It became the world’s chief maker of cash registers. The city also was a leader in manufacturing automobile parts, printed materials, and other products. By the beginning of the 2000’s, however, manufacturing had declined, and service industries were a major part of the city’s economy.
