Allen
County is
located in the northwestern portion of Ohio, within the eastern
confines
of the mid-western corn belt. It is in the central lowlands and
straddles
the till plain and lake plain areas of west central Ohio. U.S. Route
30,
and State Routes 81, 117, and 309 cross the county east and west, and
Interstate
Highway 75 and State Route 65, 115 and 696 run north and south. The
Ottawa
and Auglaize Rivers flow through Allen County.
The
county
has a
total land area of about 403 square miles or about 260,500 acres. The
1997
population of the county was 107,979. The county seat of Lima is
located
near the center of the county and is the largest town. Smaller towns
include
Delphos, Bluffton, Spencerville, Elida, Beaverdam, Cairo, Lafayette and Harrod.
According
to 1997
statistics, there were 1,040 farms in Allen County. 209,000 acres of
land
was in farms and the average farm size was 192 acres.