Page Contents for Dupont, Pennsylvania

Statistics & Facts

Location

History & History-related items

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Statistics & Facts

The Pennsylvania state capital is Harrisburg.
The population of Dupont is approximately 2,984 (1990), 2711 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 1,316 (1990), 1220 (2010).
The amount of land area in Dupont is 3.912 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0 sq kilometers.
The distance from Dupont to Washington DC is 180 miles.
The distance to the Pennsylvania state capital is 94 miles. (as the crow flies)
Dupont is positioned 41.32 degrees north of the equator and 75.74 degrees west of the prime meridian.

Location

in between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania.
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History & History Related Items

"The wealthy du Pont family of Wilmington, Delaware owned a gunpowder plant here toward the end of the last century. This is the same family whose company has grown into today's giant Du Pont Chemical interests and whose descendents include former presidential candidate Pierre du Pont, as well as the whack-job convicted of murder. The Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania tells an amazing little tale of one famous Dupont resident, Faustin Wirkus. Wirkus joined the Marines in 1915, the story goes, so he could quit his job as a breaker boy. He was first sent to Haiti and later to the neighboring island of La Gonave. Toward the island's interior lived 10,000 natives who practiced voodoo and polygamy, and not necessarily in that order. Years earlier, a deposed tribal ruler named Faustin predicted the future coming of a second Faustin who would rule the land. Young Faustin Wirkus soon became king, and 10,000 loyal natives worshiped this breaker boy from Dupont. The Marines, however, were not impressed and they quickly yanked Faustin out of there. "
(from Name Origins of Northeast PA Towns by Mike O'Hara)
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