Wappinger is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is in the Hudson Valley region, 70 miles (110 km) north of New York City, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. The population was 27,048 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the Wappinger Indians who inhabited the area.

The Wappinger were a confederacy of Native Americans whose territory, in the 17th century, was spread along the eastern shore of the Hudson River. Primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, their territory bordered Manhattan Island to the south, the Mahican territory bounded by the Roeliff Jansen Kill to the north, and extended east into parts of Connecticut.

They spoke an eastern-Algonkian language. Culturally they were closely related to the Lenape people (Delaware Indians) to the west and south of Wappinger lands, and also related to the Mahican people to their immediate north and to the Metoac peoples of Long Island. Wappinger means "easterner" in most Algonkian languages.

The town of Wappinger, originally a part of the town of Fishkill, was formed on May 20, 1875, and lies wholly within the limits of the historic Rombout Patent, granted in 1685. Among the first settlers were the VanBenschotens of New Hackensack. The town of Wappinger was primarily agricultural, while mills lined the creek in the village of Wappingers Falls.

On the night of February 6, 1871, at the drawbridge in New Hamburg that crosses Wappinger Creek – where northbound trains pass from Wappinger into the town of Poughkeepsie – the Hudson River Pacific Express crashed into a passing freight train, which had broken an axle. There were 22 confirmed deaths, but while some bodies were taken to Poughkeepsie for identification, others were never recovered. On September 1, 1892, at the same location, a mail train on the Hudson River Railroad derailed. The draw had been opened to let the small steamer Young America pass through, and was being closed when the train came northward. A gap of several feet remained when the engine reached the draw. The engine jumped the gap, but the rear end of the tender dropped enough to stop the progress of the train; then, the mail car, crashing into the tender, pushed it against the locomotive. The engineer, fireman, and mail clerk were all killed.

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