French explorers named this area Ouabache after a Potawatomi Indian word for “white,” the shimmering color of the Wabash River. Light radiating from the courthouse dome on March 31, 1880, reputedly made Wabash the first electrically lighted city in the world. One of the first electric lights is displayed in the courthouse lobby. Several other period buildings and houses in Wabash's historic district reflect the city's development, first as a port on the Wabash and Erie Canal and later as a manufacturing center on the edge of the Indiana gas belt. Learn More...