Huntington

City and port in western West Virginia, across the Ohio River from Ohio, 149 mi/240 km upstream from Cincinnati; seat of Cabell County; population (1992) 54,100. Situated on the south bank of the river, it is an important transportation center for coal mined in the south. Other industries include the manufacture of nickel alloys, chemicals, metal, wood, and glass, as well as tobacco and fruit processing.

Huntington was first settled in 1796, and incorporated in 1871. It is one of a group of small towns, including Ashland, Kentucky, and Ironton, which have a long-standing association with iron and steel, and which also received some overspill from the chemical industries of the neighbouring Kanawha valley.