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Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States with a population of 166,179 (2000). It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. The Greater Dayton area or Dayton metropolitan area encompasses a number of contiguous communities outside Dayton city proper, including ... more »
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Airports Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States with a population of 166,179 (2000). It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. The Greater Dayton area or Dayton metropolitan area encompasses a number of contiguous communities outside Dayton city proper, including Vandalia, Trotwood, Kettering, Centerville and Beavercreek, with a population of 848,153 (2000). Dayton is situated within the Miami Valley region of Ohio, just north of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
Dayton plays host to significant industrial, aerospace, and research activity and is known for the many technical innovations and inventions developed there. The city was the home of the Wright Brothers, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and entrepreneur John H. Patterson. Dayton is nicknamed the Gem City, and is also sometimes referred to as the "Birthplace of Aviation."
The city sits in the Miami River Valley, north of Cincinnati, well south of Toledo, south-west of Columbus, and east of Richmond, Indiana, in the southwest quadrant of the state. Most official and government designations place it in west-central Ohio (a term which colloquially often refers to Lima, Ohio). It is at the confluence of the Great Miami River, the Stillwater and Mad rivers, and Wolf Creek. Area natives seldom use the phrase 'greater Dayton". They affectionately refer to the region as the Miami Valley, which is meant to mean all areas between the cities of Sidney and Middletown (north and south), and Springfield to the Indiana border (east west).
Following the flood of 1913, the Miami Conservancy District was established in 1914 to build dams and levees and to dredge and straighten channels to control flooding of the Miami and surrounding rivers.
Things to do
Dayton is home to the Dayton Art Institute, a museum of fine arts. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is at nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park commemorates the lives and achievements of Dayton natives, Orville and Wilbur Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park is located on the south end of Dayton. SunWatch is the location of a 12th century American Indian village that has been partially reconstructed and includes a museum where visitors can learn about the Indian history of the Miami Valley.
Dayton is also home to a variety of performing arts venues. The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center at the corner of Second and Main, is the home performance venue of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dayton Opera. In addition to Philharmonic and Opera performances, the Schuster Center hosts concerts, lectures, traveling Broadway shows, and is a popular spot for weddings and other events. The historic Victoria Theatre, located at the corner of First and Main, hosts concerts, traveling Broadway shows, ballet, a summertime classic film series, and much more. The Loft Theatre, also on Main Street, in the home of the Human Race Theatre Company.
South of the city of Dayton is the Fraze Pavilion which hosts many nationally and internationally known musicians for concerts, located in the community of Kettering. Also south of downtown, on the banks of the Great Miami River, is the University of Dayton Arena, home venue for the University of Dayton Flyers basketball teams and the location of various other events and concerts. North of Dayton is the Hara Arena and the Nutter Center, venues that frequently host sporting events and concerts. The Nutter Center is the home arena for athletics of Wright State University and the Dayton Bombers ECHL hockey team.
Fifth Third Field is the home of the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team. The Dragons have been popular within the Dayton community since moving from Rockford, Illinois for the 2000 season.
From 1996 to 1998, Dayton hosted the National Folk Festival.
The Dayton Amateur Radio Association annually hosts North America's largest hamfest at Hara Arena. Amateur radio operators are commonly referred to as "hams" with as many as 25,000 traveling from around the world to attend this convention.
Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796 by a small group of US settlers seven years before the admission of Ohio to the Union in 1803. The town was incorporated in 1805 and given its name after Jonathan Dayton, a captain in the American Revolutionary War and signer of the U.S. Constitution. Dayton was the home of aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright who funded their aviation endeavors with the proceeds of a successful bicycle shop in Dayton. It was also the home of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and of John H. Patterson 1, who founded a successful cash register business in Dayton, National Cash Register Corporation, or NCR, which eventually diversified and was corporation of great importance in the United States during the mid- to late-20th century.
In 1797, Daniel C. Cooper laid out the Mad River Road, the first overland connection between Cincinnati, Ohio and Dayton. This opened up the "Mad River Country" at Dayton and the upper Miami Valley to settlement.
The Miami and Erie Canal built in the 1830s connected the Dayton commerce from Lake Erie via the Great Miami River and served as the principal route of transportation for western Ohio until the 1850s.
The catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of March 1913 severely affected much of the city, stimulated the growth of suburban communities outside central Dayton in areas lying further from the Miami River and on higher ground, and led to the establishment of the Miami Conservancy District in 1914. The flood remains an event of note in popular memory and local histories. The high waters damaged some of the Wright Brothers' glass plate photographic negatives of their glider flights at Kitty Hawk and power flights over Huffman Prairie near Dayton.
The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) operates public bus routes in the Dayton metro area. In addition to routes covered by traditional diesel-powered buses, RTA has a number of electric trolley bus routes. In continuous operation since 1888, Dayton's is the longest-running of the five remaining trolley bus systems in the U.S.
Air transportation is available via the James M. Cox Dayton International Airport, located in nearby Vandalia, just north of Dayton proper.
Going on a trip? Why not browse some of the luggage at eBags.com (external source)
Liberty Cab (in operation since 1929), Checker Cab and Airport Checker Cab all provide taxicab service throughout the Dayton metro area.
Your vacation. A time to lose yourself. And sometimes your luggage, too. Need Travel Insurance? Why not try Travel Guard (external source)
Lonely Planet Maps (external source)
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Temperature - Yearly Average
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
