Qualla: Huntington, West Virginia

Huntington, West Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Steamboat captains coming down the Ohio River nicknamed it the Jewel City for the bright lights along the riverbank at night, visible from miles upstream. Huntington was the largest city on the Ohio between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati when steamboats still ruled the river. It is still the largest city on that stretch today. Founded in 1871 as the western terminus of Collis P. Huntington's Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, named for the man who built it, the city grew quickly on the broad floodplain of the Ohio - a planned grid of numbered avenues and streets that gives the historic core an unusual flatness for a West Virginia city. Today Huntington holds about 45,000 residents, anchors a metropolitan area of roughly 375,000 with Ashland, Kentucky, and claims at least one world record: the world's largest rotating root beer mug, atop a Frostop stand on Hal Greer Boulevard.

Huntington, West Virginia: Collis P. Huntington's Plan

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Before 1871, what would become downtown Huntington was farmland and small settlements. The older town of Guyandotte, founded by French settlers in 1799, sat just east at the mouth of the Guyandotte River. When Collis P. Huntington chose this stretch of the Ohio River as the weste...

Huntington, West Virginia: Marshall University

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Marshall University, the second-largest in West Virginia, occupies a 20-square-block campus directly east of downtown. The institution traces its lineage to Marshall Academy, founded in 1837 as a private subscription school by residents of Guyandotte and the surrounding area, nam...

Huntington, West Virginia: Hot Dogs, Root Beer, and Cam's Ham

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Huntington claims to be the birthplace of the West Virginia-style hot dog, distinguished by its specific bun-meat-chili-slaw-onion configuration that has divided regional opinion since its first appearance. The world's largest rotating root beer mug, twelve feet tall and very ora...

Huntington, West Virginia: The Fat City Era and Its End

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2008, Huntington earned the dubious title of fattest and most unhealthy city in the United States. The 2006 data showed 46 percent of adults were obese. The designation was painful but ultimately useful. British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver visited and filmed his Food Revolutio...

Huntington, West Virginia: Bridges, Neighborhoods, and the Jewel at Night

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Three bridges cross the Ohio River from Huntington into Ohio: the East End Bridge from 31st Street in Highlawn, the Robert C. Byrd Bridge from 6th and 5th Streets downtown, and the West End Bridge on U.S. 52. The neighborhoods spread out from the central grid - Downtown with Pull...