KOKOMO

city, seat (1844) of Howard county, north central Indiana, U.S., on Wildcat Creek, 52 mi (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 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 U.S. 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 cobaltchromiumtungsten alloy known as Stellite. By the middle 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 outbreak of World War II, Kokomo was again an important manufacturing centre (machinery, auto parts, aluminum die castings). It is the seat of Indiana University at Kokomo (1945). Grissom Air Force Base is 10 mi north. Inc. 1865. Pop. (1990) city, 44,962; Kokomo MSA, 96,946.