Roanoke is a town in Jackson Township, Huntington County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,762 at the 2020 census. Roanoke is governed by a town council. Town offices include the clerk treasurer, utilities department, police department, and volunteer fire department. The town has a public elementary school. WOWO and WRNP have transmitter towers in Roanoke, along U.S. Highway 24. For many years, television station WPTA was licensed to Roanoke, though that station's studios and transmitter have always been located in nearby Fort Wayne. History Once the hunting and fishing grounds of the Miami Indians, Roanoke became a prosperous commercial center in the mid-19th century. Kiilhsoohkwa (meaning "sun-woman"), the granddaughter of Chief Little Turtle, lived in Roanoke and was known by locals as “the last of the Miami tribe.” Roanoke had its start in about 1848, soon after the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal through that territory. The completion of the canal through Jackson Township enticed European-American settlers to the area. In the wake of the canal's completion, the town became an important shipping point in the region and a source of supplies for neighboring towns in Allen, Huntington, and Whitley counties. One of the earliest settlers in the area was Jarred Darrow who arrived in 1837. Between 1840 and 1847 the area's population swelled and included a large number of persons belonging to the United Brethren Church, the Methodist Church, and the Lutheran Church. Roanoke was incorporated as a town in 1874. The town was named after Roanoke, Virginia. Geography Roanoke is located at (40.964252, -85.374431). According to the 2010 census, Roanoke has a total area of , of which (or 99.5%) is land and (or 0.5%) is water. Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 1,722 people, 680 households, and 487 families living in the town. The population density was . There were 756 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.1% White, 0.2% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.5% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.7% of the population. There were 680 households, of which 35.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.2% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.8% had a male householder with no wife present,