Lima, city, seat (1831) of Allen county, northwestern Ohio, U.S. The city is situated on the Ottawa River, about 90 miles (145 km) northwest of Columbus. It was laid out in 1831, and its name (from Lima, Peru) is said to have been chosen from among several possibilities that were drawn from a hat. Oil was discovered nearby in 1885, and by the turn of the 20th century Lima was the centre of oil fields (which are now, for the most part, exhausted); the city remains, however, an important pipeline and refining centre. Lima’s industrial production is now highly diversified and includes the manufacture of truck and automobile parts and engines, battle tanks, metal fixtures and coatings, and chemicals. The city is also a regional retail centre, and its two hospitals, among Allen county’s largest employers, serve patients from many surrounding counties.
The Lima campus of the Ohio State University, east of the city, is also the site of James A. Rhodes State College (1966; known until 2002 as Lima Technical College). Lima is also home to the University of Northwestern Ohio (founded in 1920 as the Northwestern School of Commerce). The Allen County Museum, opened in Lima in 1908, traces the county’s history with a focus on the region’s role in the oil and locomotive industries. Nearby sites of historical interest include the former Hog Creek Reservation, occupied by the Shawnee Indians from 1817 to the early 1830s, and Fort Amanda, a supply depot during the War of 1812 that is commemorated with a monument and that is now the site of a cemetery dating from the war. A bevy of local residential, commercial, and governmental buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lima has a number of performing arts organizations, including a professional symphony orchestra. Square Fair (August) is the city’s annual arts fair; there is also an annual blues festival (March). Notable people who were born or grew up in Lima include comedian Phyllis Diller, television personality Hugh Downs, Nobel Prize-winning physicist William A. Fowler, jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson, big-band singer Helen O’Connell, and cartoonist Al Frueh. Inc. town, 1842; city, 1922. Pop. (2000) 40,081; Lima Metro Area, 108,473; (2010) 38,771; Lima Metro Area, 106,331.