BELLEFONTAINE

city, seat (1820) of Logan county, west central Ohio, U.S., 45 mi (72 km) northwest of Columbus. The site was once occupied by a Shawnee village called Blue Jacket's Town (for a white youth [Marmaduke Swearingen] captured while wearing a blue jacket, who later became a Shawnee chief and was one of the tribal leaders at the Battle of Fallen Timbers ). First settled by white men in 1806 and named Bellefontaine ("beautiful fountain") for the local natural springs, it became a service centre for a farming area, but its early importance as a railroad town has declined. Industries include the manufacture of power tools, circuit breakers, electric motors, machinery, and plating. The first concrete street in America was laid around the courthouse in 1891. The state's highest point, Campbell Hill (1,549 ft ), is 1 mi east. Also in the vicinity are Indian Lake State Park, the Ohio and Zane caverns, the Castle Piatt Mac-A-Cheek (1864, built in the style of a French chateau), and the Mac-O-Chee Castle (1879, modelled after a Flemish castle). Inc. village, 1835; city, 1895. Pop. (1990) 12,142.