Discovering Fort Wayne: a Vibrant and Impactful Weekend in Summit City

A light drizzle misted the windshield. I hoped it would stay like that. Actually, I hoped the rain would stop and we’d be treated to a blue-skied day, but the weather apps forecast a cold and rainy weekend.

That dreary weather might have put a damper on our visit to Fort Wayne. Might have. Did not. Even now, after we’ve been home for a couple of weeks, I think of our whirlwind tour and see bright and cheery people, vibrant art, colorful cuisine, and intense passion for doing what you love — whatever that may be.

Located in the northeast corner of Indiana, Fort Wayne is an easy drive from Chicago. It’s a river town, which is practically a given in the Midwest. Towns often developed because pioneers needed easy access to waterways.

Rivers were the highways of the frontier, the interstates of expansion. They provided a more economical and speedier way than mules and wagons to transfer goods from one place to another.

Fort Wayne has three.

Despite a deceivingly flat terrain, this major Midwestern city is situated on the highest point in the region at the confluence of Saint Joseph and Saint Marys Rivers. Those two combine to create the third, the Maumee River, which flows into Lake Erie. Where the three converge, it’s a short portage to the Wabash River.

In the 1830s, engineers bridged that portage with the creation of the Wabash and Erie Canal, a connection enabling…