title: Operation Storm

text: On the 25th anniversary of the operation, the celebration in Knin was attended for the first time ever by an ethnic Serb political representative, Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia Boris Milošević. His move was applauded across Croatia, with Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković stating that it will "send a new message for Croatian society, relations between Croatians and Serb minority ... between Croatia and Serbia." Other notable politicians who praised it include member of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) Peđa Grbin, president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) Milorad Pupovac, leader of the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV) Tomislav Žigmanov, Mayor of Knin Marko Jelić and retired general Pavao Miljavac. Milošević's move was met with criticism from the far-right party Homeland Movement (DP) and members of Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) paramilitary. Leader of the Homeland Movement Miroslav Škoro refused to participate in the official ceremony, despite being a Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, and stated that "there is no reason for reconciliation of any kind." The move was also received negatively by the Governments of Serbia and Republika Srpska. At the celebration, Prime Minister Plenković, President Zoran Milanović and General Gotovina sent messages of peace and reconciliation and sympathy for Serbian civilian victims as well. Serbia held a commemoration on the Rača Bridge over the Sava River, while a tableau was staged on the bridge with actors dressed as refugees sitting in Yugoslav-era cars and tractors.


title: Creep 2

text: Creep 2 is a 2017 American found footage psychological horror film directed by Patrick Brice and written by Brice and Mark Duplass. It is a sequel to Brice's 2014 film "Creep", which was also written by Duplass and Brice. Duplass reprises his role from the first film as a serial killer who lures unsuspecting videographers to their deaths, with Desiree Akhavan portraying his latest target.


title: Creep 2

text: The film had its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2017, and was released on October 24, 2017, by The Orchard. Like its predecessor, "Creep 2" was also critically acclaimed, with much praise focused on the film's writing, atmosphere, dark humor, and the performances among the leads.


title: Creep 2

text: A prolific serial killer, using the name "Aaron" after a previous victim, finds himself dissatisfied with his killings and undergoing a midlife crisis. When his latest ad for a videographer lures YouTuber Sara to his remote cabin, Aaron changes his approach by admitting he is a serial killer who will let Sara live for the next 24 hours if she records a documentary on his life. Sara, doubting his revelation, agrees to film Aaron in the hope that the video will popularize her unsuccessful web series about eccentric Craigslist clients.


title: Creep 2

text: Over the course of the day, Aaron struggles to intimidate Sara, who plays along with his various eccentricities. While Sara continues to doubt that Aaron is a serial killer, Aaron informs her that he intends to conclude the documentary by having her kill him. He eventually manages to horrify Sara by staging a suicide attempt, which almost causes her to leave. However, after Aaron reveals that his life was not in danger, she remains to hear Aaron share intimate details about himself, culminating in the two sharing a kiss.


title: Creep 2

text: Aaron brings Sara outside to announce that the documentary will end with them committing suicide together. Sara attempts to escape when she sees Aaron stab himself in the stomach, but Aaron stabs her and drags her into an open grave he dug. As Aaron gives a closing monologue, a still-alive Sara emerges from the grave and strikes him in the back of the head with a shovel before fleeing.


title: Creep 2

text: Afterwards, Sara is recorded in public by an unidentified individual whistling a tune heard in Aaron's videos. When Sara notices the individual filming her, the camera abruptly cuts away.


title: Creep 2

text: Additionally, Kyle Field, Caveh Zahedi, and Jeff Man portray Wade, Randy, and Alex, subjects featured in Sara's web series. Director Patrick Brice reappears in his role as Aaron (referred to in the credits as "Old Aaron") through archive footage from the first film.


title: Creep 2

text: In March 2014, it was announced Duplass had plans on making the film into a trilogy, with RADiUS-TWC producing and distributing the films and production taking place later in the year. In February 2015, Duplass stated production hadn't begun due to scheduling issues. In August 2016, Duplass began trying on costumes for the film. That same month, Brice confirmed the sequel was moving forward.


title: Creep 2

text: Julian Wass composed the soundtrack for "Creep 2." The song that plays in the end credits is "Botanica de Los Angeles" by Xiu Xiu, taken from their album "".


title: Creep 2

text: It had its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2017. The film was released through video on demand on October 24, 2017. It was released through Netflix on December 23, 2017.


title: Creep 2

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's consensus reads, ""Creep 2" has everything that made the original work and more - more laughs, more awkwardness, more unsettling terror." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Creep 2

text: John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The sequel will impress any fan of the original. It's fresher than most of the low-budget thrillers gracing theaters lately." Kimberley Elizabeth of Nightmare on Film Street called the film "hypnotically unsettling", giving the film a 4 out of 4 rating. Mike Sprague of JoBlo.com said the film was "just as unsettling and entertaining as the original" and awarded it an 8 out of 10 rating.


title: Creep 2

text: In 2017, Brice confirmed that a third film, titled "Creep 3", was in development, with Brice and Duplass returning as director and star respectively.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rocket explosives as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. First true rocket artillery was developed in India by the Kingdom of Mysore. In the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of early military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, Soviet Katyusha-series and numerous other systems employed on a smaller scale by the Western allies and Japan. In modern use, the rockets are often guided by an internal guiding system or GPS in order to maintain accuracy.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The use of rockets as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. Devices such as the Korean hwacha were able to fire hundreds of fire arrows simultaneously. The use of medieval rocket artillery was picked up by the invading Mongols and spread to the Ottoman Turks who in turn used them on the European battlefield.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The use of war-rockets is well documented in Medieval Europe. In 1408 Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy used 300 incendiary rockets in the Battle of Othée. The city dwellers coped with this tactic by covering their roofs with dirt.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The earliest successful utilization of metal-cylinder rocket artillery is associated with Kingdom of Mysore, South India. Tipu Sultan's father Hyder Ali successfully established the powerful Sultanate of Mysore and introduced the first iron-cased metal-cylinder rocket. The Mysorean rockets of this period were innovative, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes that tightly packed the gunpowder propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range).


title: Rocket artillery

text: Tipu Sultan used them against the larger forces of the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, especially during the Battle of Pollilur. Another battle where these missiles were deployed was the Battle of Sultanpet Tope, where Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later famous as the First Duke of Wellington, was almost defeated by Tipu's Diwan Purnaiah.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Although the rockets were quite primitive, they had a demoralizing effect on the enemy due to the noise and bursting light. The rockets could be of various sizes but usually consisted of a tube of soft hammered iron about 8 inches (20 cm) long and 1.5 to 3 inches (3.8 to 7.6 cm) in diameter, closed at one end and strapped to a shaft of bamboo about 4 ft (1 m) long. The iron tube acted as a combustion chamber and contained well-packed black powder propellant. A rocket carrying about one pound (~500 gm) of powder could travel almost 1,000 yards (~900 m).


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Indian Tipu Sultan's rocket experiences, including Munro's book of 1789, eventually led to the Royal Arsenal beginning a military rocket R&D program in 1801. Several rocket cases were collected from Mysore and sent to Britain for analysis. The development was chiefly the work of Col. (later Sir) William Congreve, son of the Comptroller of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London, who set on a vigorous research and development programme at the Arsenal's laboratory; after development work was complete, the rockets were manufactured in quantity further north, near Waltham Abbey, Essex. He was told that "the British at Seringapatam had suffered more from the rockets than from the shells or any other weapon used by the enemy". "In at least one instance", an eyewitness told Congreve, "a single rocket had killed three men and badly wounded others".


title: Rocket artillery

text: It has been suggested that Congreve may have adapted iron-cased gunpowder rockets for use by the British military from prototypes created by the Irish nationalist Robert Emmet during Emmet's Rebellion in 1803. But this seems far less likely given the fact that the British had been exposed to Indian rockets since 1780 at the latest, and that a vast quantity of unused rockets and their construction equipment fell into British hands at the end of the Anglo-Mysore Wars in 1799, at least 4 years before Emmet's rockets.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Congreve introduced a standardised formula for the making of gunpowder at Woolwich and introduced mechanical grinding mills to produce powder of uniform size and consistency. Machines were also employed to ensure the packing of the powder was perfectly uniform. His rockets were more elongated, had a much larger payload, and were mounted on sticks; this allowed them to be launched from the sea at a greater range. He also introduced shot into the payload, which added shrapnel damage to the incendiary capability of the rocket. By 1805 he was able to introduce a comprehensive weapons system to the British Army.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The rocket had a "cylindro-conoidal" warhead and was launched in pairs from half troughs on simple metal A-frames. The original rocket design had the guide pole side-mounted on the warhead, this was improved in 1815 with a base plate with a threaded hole. They could be fired up to two miles, the range being set by the degree of elevation of the launching frame, although at any range they were fairly inaccurate and had a tendency for premature explosion. They were as much a psychological weapon as a physical one, and they were rarely or never used except alongside other types of artillery. Congreve designed several different warhead sizes from . The type with a guide pole was the most widely used variant. Different warheads were used, including explosive, shrapnel and incendiary. They were manufactured at a special facility near the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills beside the River Lea in Essex.


title: Rocket artillery

text: These rockets were used during the Napoleonic Wars against the city of Boulogne, and during the naval bombardment of Copenhagen, where over 25,000 rockets were launched, causing severe incendiary damage to the city. The rockets were also adapted for the purpose of flares for signalling and battlefield illumination. Henry Trengrouse utilized the rocket in his life-saving apparatus, in which the rocket was launched at a shipwreck with an attached line to help rescue the victims.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Congreve rockets are also famous for inspiring the lawyer Francis Scott Key to pen the words the "rockets' red glare" in what became the US National Anthem during the War of 1812.


title: Rocket artillery

text: After the rockets were successfully used during Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, various countries were quick to adopt the weapon and establish special rocket brigades. The British created the British Army Rocket Brigade in 1818, followed by the Austrian Army and the Russian Army.


title: Rocket artillery

text: One persistent problem with the rockets was their lack of aerodynamic stability. The British engineer William Hale designed a rocket with a combination of tail fins and directed nozzles for the exhaust. This imparted a spin to the rocket during flight, which stabilized its trajectory and greatly improved its accuracy, although it did sacrifice somewhat of the maximum range. Hale rockets were enthusiastically adopted by the United States, and during the Mexican War in 1846 a volunteer brigade of rocketeers was pivotal in the surrender of Mexican forces at the Siege of Veracruz.


title: Rocket artillery

text: By the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, and Soviet Katyusha-series. The Soviet Katyushas, nicknamed by German troops "Stalin's Organ" because of their visual resemblance to a church musical organ and alluding to the sound of the weapon's rockets, were mounted on trucks or light tanks, while the early German Nebelwerfer ordnance pieces were mounted on a small wheeled carriage which was light enough to be moved by several men and could easily be deployed nearly anywhere, while also being towed by most vehicles. The Germans also had self-propelled rocket artillery in the form of the Panzerwerfer and Wurfrahmen 40 which equipped half-track armoured fighting vehicles. An oddity in the subject of rocket artillery during this time was the German "Sturmtiger", a vehicle based on the Tiger I heavy tank chassis that was armed with a 380 mm rocket mortar.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Western Allies of World War II employed little rocket artillery. During later periods of the war, British and Canadian troops used the Land Mattress, a towed rocket launcher. The United States Army built and deployed a small number of turret-mounted T34 Calliope and T40 Whizbang rocket artillery tanks (converted from M4 Sherman medium tanks) in France and Italy. In 1945, the British Army also fitted some M4 Shermans with two 60 lb RP3 rockets, the same as used on ground attack aircraft and known as ""Tulip"".


title: Rocket artillery

text: In the Pacific, however, the US Navy made heavy use of rocket artillery on their LSM(R) transports, adding to the already intense bombardment by the guns of heavy warships to soften up Japanese-held islands before the US Marines would land. On Iwo Jima, the Marines made use of rocket artillery trucks in a similar fashion as the Soviet Katyusha, but on a smaller scale.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Japanese Imperial Army deployed the naval Type 4 20 cm (8 in) Rocket Launcher and army Type 4 40 cm (16 in) Rocket Launcher against the United States Marines and Army troops at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and United States Army troops during the Battle of Luzon, as well Soviet Red Army troops during Manchuria Campaign, South Sakhalin and Kuril Island Campaign. Their deployment was limited relative to other mortar types and the projectiles on the 40 cm launcher were so large and heavy that they had to be loaded using small hand-operated cranes, but they were extremely accurate and had a pronounced psychological effect on opposing troops, who called them "Screaming Mimis", a nickname originally applied to the German Nebelwerfer tube-launched rocket mortar series in the European Theater of Operations. They were often used at night to conceal their launching sites and increase their disruptiveness and psychological effectiveness. The Japanese 20 cm rockets were launched from tubes or launching troughs, while the larger rockets were launched from steel ramps reinforced with wooden monopods.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Japanese also deployed a limited number of 447mm rocket launchers, termed 45 cm Rocket Mortars by United States personnel who test-fired them at the close of the war. Their projectiles consisted of a 1,500 lb cylinder filled with propellant and ballistite sticks detonated by black powder, which produced a blast crater approximately the size of an American 1,000 lb bomb. In effect, this made the 447mm projectile a type of surface-to-surface barrel bomb. While these latter weapons were captured at Luzon and proved effective in subsequent testing, it is not clear that they were ever used against American troops, in contrast to the more common 20 and 40 cm types, which clearly contributed to the 37,870 American casualties sustained at Luzon.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Israel fitted some of their Sherman tanks with different rocket artillery. An unconventional Sherman conversion was the turretless Kilshon ("Trident") that launched an AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile.


title: Rocket artillery

text: The Soviet Union continued its development of the Katyusha during the Cold War, and also exported them widely.


title: Rocket artillery

text: Modern rocket artillery such as the US M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System is highly mobile and are used in similar fashion to other self-propelled artillery. Global Positioning and Inertial Navigation terminal guidance systems have been introduced.


title: Rocket artillery

text: During the Kargil war of 1999, the Indian army pressed into service the Pinaka MBRL against Pakistani forces. Despite the system still being under development, it was still able to perform successfully, after which the Indian Army showed interest in inducting the system into service.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: In geography and geodesy, a meridian is the locus connecting points of equal longitude, which is the angle (in degrees or other units) east or west of a given prime meridian (currently, the IERS Reference Meridian). In other words, it is a line of longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by that longitude and its latitude, measured in angular degrees north or south of the Equator. On a Mercator projection or on a Gall-Peters projection, each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude. A meridian is half of a great circle on Earth's surface. The length of a meridian on a modern ellipsoid model of Earth (WGS 84) has been estimated as .


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The first prime meridian was set by Eratosthenes in 200 BCE. This prime meridian was used to provide measurement of the earth, but had many problems because of the lack of latitude measurement. Many years later around the 19th century there were still concerns of the prime meridian. Multiple locations for the geographical meridian meant that there was inconsistency, because each country had their own guidelines for where the prime meridian was located.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The term "meridian" comes from the Latin "meridies", meaning "midday"; the subsolar point passes through a given meridian at solar noon, midway between the times of sunrise and sunset on that meridian. Likewise, the Sun crosses the celestial meridian at the same time. The same Latin stem gives rise to the terms a.m. (ante meridiem) and p.m. (post meridiem) used to disambiguate hours of the day when utilizing the 12-hour clock.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: Because of a growing international economy, there was a demand for a set international prime meridian to make it easier for worldwide traveling which would, in turn, enhance international trading across countries. As a result, a Conference was held in 1884, in Washington, D.C. Twenty-six countries were present at the International Meridian Conference to vote on an international prime meridian. Ultimately the outcome was as follows: there would only be a single meridian, the meridian was to cross and pass at Greenwich (which was the 0°), there would be two longitude direction up to 180° (east being plus and west being minus), there will be a universal day, and the day begins at the mean midnight of the initial meridian.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: Toward the ending of the 12th century there were two main locations that were acknowledged as the geographic location of the meridian, France and Britain. These two locations often conflicted and a settlement was reached only after there was an International Meridian Conference held, in which Greenwich was recognized as the 0° location.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The meridian through Greenwich (inside Greenwich Park), England, called the Prime Meridian, was set at zero degrees of longitude, while other meridians were defined by the angle at the center of the earth between where it and the prime meridian cross the equator. As there are 360 degrees in a circle, the meridian on the opposite side of the earth from Greenwich, the antimeridian, forms the other half of a circle with the one through Greenwich, and is at 180° longitude near the International Date Line (with land mass and island deviations for boundary reasons). The meridians from West of Greenwich (0°) to the antimeridian (180°) define the Western Hemisphere and the meridians from East of Greenwich (0°) to the antimeridian (180°) define the Eastern Hemisphere. Most maps show the lines of longitude.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The position of the prime meridian has changed a few times throughout history, mainly due to the transit observatory being built next door to the previous one (to maintain the service to shipping). Such changes had no significant practical effect. Historically, the average error in the determination of longitude was much larger than the change in position. The adoption of World Geodetic System 84" (WGS84) as the positioning system has moved the geodetic prime meridian 102.478 metres east of its last astronomic position (measured at Greenwich). The position of the current geodetic prime meridian is not identified at all by any kind of sign or marking at Greenwich (as the older astronomic position was), but can be located using a GPS receiver.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: It was in the best interests of the nations to agree to one standard meridian to benefit their fast growing economy and production. The disorganized system they had before was not sufficient for their increasing mobility. The coach services in England had erratic timing before the GWT. U.S. and Canada were also improving their railroad system and needed a standard time as well. With a standard meridian, stage coach and trains were able to be more efficient. The argument of which meridian is more scientific was set aside in order to find the most convenient for practical reasons. They were also able to agree that the universal day was going to be the mean solar day. They agreed that the days would begin at midnight and the universal day would not impact the use of local time. A report was submitted to the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada," dated 10 May 1894; on the "Unification of the Astronomical, Civil and Nautical Days"; which stated that:


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The magnetic meridian is an equivalent imaginary line connecting the magnetic south and north poles and can be taken as the horizontal component of magnetic force lines along the surface of the earth. Therefore, a compass needle will be parallel to the magnetic meridian. However, a compass needle will not be steady in the magnetic meridian, because of the longitude from east to west being complete geodesic. The angle between the magnetic and the true meridian is the magnetic declination, which is relevant for navigating with a compass. Navigators were able to use the azimuth (the horizontal angle or direction of a compass bearing) of the rising and setting Sun to measure the magnetic variation (difference between magnetic and true north).


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The true meridian is the chord that goes from one pole to the other, passing through the observer, and is contrasted with the magnetic meridian, which goes through the "magnetic" poles and the observer. The true meridian can be found by careful astronomical observations, and the magnetic meridian is simply parallel to the compass needle. The arithmetic difference between the true and magnetic meridian is called the magnetic declination, which is important for the calibration of compasses.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: Henry D. Thoreau classified this true meridian versus the magnetic meridian in order to have a more qualitative, intuitive, and abstract function. He used the true meridian since his compass varied by a few degrees. There were some variations. When he noted the sight line for the True Meridian from his family's house to the depot, he could check the declination of his compass before and after surveying throughout the day. He noted this variation down.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The meridian passage is the moment when a celestial object passes the meridian of longitude of the observer. At this point, the celestial object is at its highest point. When the sun passes two times an altitude while rising and setting can be averaged to give the time of meridian passage. Navigators utilized the sun's declination and the sun's altitude at local meridian passage, in order to calculate their latitude with the formula.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: The declination of major stars are their angles north and south from the celestial equator. It is important to note that the meridian passage will not occur exactly at 12 hours because of the inclination of the earth. The meridian passage can occur within a few minutes of variation.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: A standard meridian is a meridian used for determining standard time. For instance, the 30th meridian east () is the standard meridian for Eastern European Time. Since the adoption of time zones – as opposed to local mean time or solar time – in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most countries have adopted the standard time of one of the 24 meridians closest to their geographical position, as decided by the International Meridian Conference in 1884. Although, a few time zones are offset by an additional 30 or 45 minutes, such as in the Chatham Islands, South Australia and Nepal.


title: Meridian (geography)

text: Many of these instruments rely on the ability to measure the longitude and latitude of the earth. These instruments also were typically affected by local gravity, which paired well with existing technologies such as the magnetic meridian.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Battle of Longewala (4–7 December 1971) was one of the first major engagements in the western sector during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, fought between assaulting Pakistani forces and Indian defenders at the Indian border post of Longewala, in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan state in India. The battle was fought between 120 Indian soldiers accompanied by four Hunter fighter aircraft and 2,000–3,000 Pakistani soldiers accompanied by 30–40 tanks.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: A company of the Indian Army's 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, commanded by Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, was left with the choice of either attempting to hold out until reinforced, or fleeing on foot from a Pakistani mechanised infantry force. Choosing the former, Chandpuri ensured that all his assets were correctly deployed and made the best use of his strong defensive position, as well as weaknesses created by errors in enemy tactics. He was also fortunate that an Indian Air Force forward air controller was able to secure and direct aircraft in support of the post's defence until reinforcements arrived six hours later.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Pakistani commanders made several questionable decisions, including a failure of their strategic intelligence to foresee the availability of Indian strike aircraft in the Longewala area, exercising operational mobility with little or no route reconnaissance, and conducting a tactical frontal assault with no engineer reconnaissance. This led to the Pakistani brigade group being left extremely vulnerable to air attack, vehicles becoming bogged in terrain unsuitable for the movement of armoured vehicles as they tried to deploy off a single track, these being more susceptible to enemy fire by using external fuel storage in tactical combat, attempting to execute a night attack over unfamiliar terrain, and infantry being surprised by obstacles to troop movement causing confusion and stalling the attack during the crucial hours of darkness, when the assaulting infantry still had a measure of concealment from Indian small arms and infantry support weapon fire.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The main thrust of the Indian Army during the 1971 war was directed towards the eastern theatre, with the western sector envisioned as a holding operation to prevent the Pakistan Army from achieving any success that would allow the President of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, any bargaining tool to trade against the captured territories in the east. By the last week of November 1971, the Indian Army had launched offensive manoeuvres at Atgram against Pakistani border posts and communications centres along the eastern border. The Mukti Bahini also launched an offensive against Jessore at this time. It was clear to Islamabad by this time that open conflict was inevitable, and that East Pakistan was indefensible in the long run. Yahya Khan chose at this point to try to protect Pakistan's integrity and to hold India by Ayub Khan's strategy—""The defence of East Pakistan lies in the West"".


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Khan's policy made the assumption that an open conflict with India would not last long due to international pressure, and that since East Pakistan was undefendable, the war effort should be concentrated on occupying as much Indian territory as possible as a bargaining tool at the negotiating table. To this end, Gen. Tikka Khan had proposed an offensive into India, and the PAF's "overriding priority was to give maximum support to this offensive". The initial plans for the offensive called for at least temporary air dominance by the PAF under which Khan's troops could conduct a lightning campaign deep into Western India before digging in and consolidating their positions. To support Khan's troops, the PAF had launched pre-emptive strikes on the evening of 3 December that led to the formal commencement of hostilities. In the western theatre, the town of Rahim Yar Khan, close to the international border, formed a critical communication centre for Khan's forces and, situated on the Sindh–Punjab railway, remained a vulnerable link in Khan's logistics. The fall of Rahim Yar Khan to Indian forces would cut off the railway as well as road link between Sindh and Punjab, starving Khan's forces of fuel and ammunition delivered to Karachi.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Indian battle plans called for a strike by the 12th Indian Division across the border towards Islamgarh through Sarkari Tala, subsequently advancing through Baghla to secure Rahim Yar Khan, which would not only destabilise the Pakistani defences in the Punjab, but also in the Jammu & Kashmir Sector, allowing the planned Indian offensive in the Shakargarh sector to sweep the Pakistani forces trapped there.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Pakistan, which envisaged the Punjab as an operational centre, had a strong intelligence network in the area and planned to counter its own comparatively weak strength on the ground with a pre-emptive strike through Kishangarh towards the divisional headquarters south of Ramgarh. Pakistani intelligence agents were able to infiltrate the operations area posing as local people and pass on information. However, these sources failed to pass on information on the Longewala post which, originally a BSF post, was now held by a company of the Punjab Regiment. Longewala formed a strategic point en route to capturing vast tracts of land and also a pivotal theatre of war in engaging India on the western front.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Pakistan's tactical plan was based on the assumption that an attack in the area would help Pakistan's 1st Armoured Division's task in the Sri Ganganagar area. Pakistan High command also felt that it was important to protect the north-south road link which they felt was vulnerable, as it was close to the border. A combined arms plan was decided upon. This involved two infantry brigades and two armoured regiments. A separate division, the 18th Division, was formed for this purpose. The 18th Division's operation orders required one infantry brigade (206th) with an armoured regiment (38th Cavalry) to capture and establish a firm base at Longewala, a junction on the Indian road system, and the 51st Infantry Brigade and the 22nd Cavalry (Pakistan Army Armoured Corps) to operate beyond Longewala to capture Jaisalmer.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Pakistani plan was to reach Longewala, Ramgarh and Jaisalmer. The plan was far-fetched from the start, if only because it called for a night attack to be conducted over terrain that was not preceded by route or engineer reconnaissance, and the armoured troops were therefore unaware the ground could not support rapid movement towards the objective. As the day unfolded, Longewala would stand out as one of the biggest losses for Pakistan, despite overwhelming superiority before commencement of the battle, largely due to the vehicles becoming bogged down in soft sand.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: On the Indian side, the post was held by A Company, 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, led by Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, the defences occupying a high sand dune which dominated the area that was largely intractable to vehicles. The post was surrounded by a barbed wire fence of three strands. The rest of the battalion was located at Sadhewala, to the north-east. Chandpuri commanded an infantry company reinforced by a section each of medium machine guns (MMGs) and L16 81mm mortars, and one Jonga-mounted recoilless rifle (RCL). His two other recoilless rifle teams of the anti-tank section were under training at battalion headquarters. Major Chandpuri also had under his command a four-man team of the camel Border Security Force division. The Longewala post had no armoured vehicles, but artillery support was available from a battery of the 170th Field Regiment, tasked with direct support of the battalion, and the 168th Field Regiment, which had been deployed to the area in secrecy just a day earlier. The direct support battery was attached to the 168th Field Regiment and served as its "Sierra" Battery. Immediately after PAF strikes on Indian airfields on 3 December, Chandpuri dispatched a 20-man-strong patrol under 2nd Lt. Dharam Veer Bhan to Boundary Pillar (BP) 638, on the border. This patrol was to play an important part in detecting the advances of Pakistani forces.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: During the night of the 4th, Dharam Veer Bhan's platoon, while on a patrol, detected noises across the border that suggested a large number of armoured vehicles approaching. These were soon confirmed by reports—from the Army's Air Observation Post aircraft flown by Maj. Atma Singh—in the area of a armoured column on the track leading to the post advancing in the general direction of the Longewala post. Directing Dharam Veer Bhan's patrol to trail the advancing armoured column, Chandpuri contacted battalion headquarters, requesting urgent reinforcements and armour and artillery support. Battalion headquarters gave him the choice of staying put and containing the attack as much as possible, or carrying out a tactical retreat to Ramgarh, as reinforcements would not be available that night. Considering that Chandpuri's command had all the transportation to retreat on time, he decided to stay and fight back the advancing enemy.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Pakistani forces began their attack at 12:30 am. As the offensive approached the lone outpost, Pakistani artillery opened up across the border with medium artillery, killing five of the ten camels from the BSF detachment. As the column of 45 tanks neared the post, Indian defences, lacking the time to lay a prepared minefield, laid a hasty anti-tank minefield as the enemy advanced, one infantryman being killed in the process. The Indian infantry held their fire until the leading Pakistani tanks had approached to within before firing their PIATs. They accounted for the first two tanks on the track with their Jeep-mounted 106 mm M40 recoilless rifle, with one of its crew being killed during the engagement. This weapon proved quite effective because it was able to engage the thinner top armour of the Pakistani tanks from its elevated position, firing at often stationary, bogged-down vehicles. In all, the post defenders claimed 12 tanks destroyed or damaged. The initial Pakistani attack stalled almost immediately when the infantry discovered the barbed wire which had not been spotted in the night, and interpreted it as signifying a minefield. Firing for the Indian RCL crews was made easier by the flames of fires when the spare fuel tanks on the Pakistani tanks, intended to supplement their internal capacity for the advance to Jaisalmer, exploded, providing ample light for Indians located on higher ground, and creating a dense, acrid smoke screen at ground level for the Pakistani infantry, adding to the confusion. Two hours were lost as Pakistani sappers were brought up, only to discover there was no minefield. However, at this time Pakistani infantry were required to make another attack, from a different direction, but in the dawn light. The Pakistani advance then attempted to surround the post two hours later by vehicles getting off the road, but many vehicles, particularly armoured personnel carriers and tanks, in trying to soften up the Indian defenders before attacking, became bogged down in the soft sand of the area surrounding the post. Throughout the engagement, Major Chandpuri continued to direct the supporting artillery fire.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Although massively outnumbering the Indian defenders and having surrounded them, the Pakistani troops were unable to advance over open terrain on a full-moon night, under small arms and mortar fire from the outpost. This encouraged the Indians not to give up their strong defensive position, frustrating the Pakistani commanders. As dawn arrived, the Pakistan forces had still not taken the post, and were now faced with doing so in full daylight.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: In the morning, the Indian Air Force was finally able to direct some HAL HF-24 Maruts and Hawker Hunter aircraft to assist the post; they were not outfitted with night-vision equipment, and so had to wait until dawn. With daylight, however, the IAF was able to operate effectively, with the strike aircraft being guided to targets by the airborne Forward Air Controller (FAC), Maj. Atma Singh in a HAL Krishak. The Indian aircraft attacked the Pakistani ground troops with 16 Matra T-10 rockets and 30 mm cannon on each aircraft. Without support from the Pakistan Air Force, which was busy elsewhere, the tanks and other armoured vehicles were easy targets for the IAF's Hunters. The range of the 12.7 mm anti-aircraft heavy machine guns mounted on the tanks was limited and therefore ineffective against the Indian jets. Indian air attacks were made easier by the barren terrain. Many IAF officers later described the attack as a "turkey shoot", signifying the lopsidedness. By noon the next day, the assault ended completely, having cost Pakistan 22 tanks claimed destroyed by aircraft fire, 12 by ground anti-tank fire, and some captured after being abandoned, with a total of 100 vehicles claimed to have been destroyed or damaged in the desert around the post. The Pakistani forces were forced to withdraw when Indian tanks from the division's cavalry regiment, the 20th Lancers, commanded by Col. Bawa Guruvachan Singh, along with the 17th Battalion, Rajputana Rifles, launched their counter-offensive to end the six-hour engagement. Longewala had proved to be one of the defining moments in the war.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Since the Indians were on the defensive, they managed to inflict heavy losses on the Pakistanis: 200 soldiers killed, 36 tanks destroyed or abandoned, and 500 additional vehicles lost. The Pakistani judicial commission set up at the end of war recommended the commander of 18 Division, Maj. Gen. Mustafa, be tried for negligence.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: Notwithstanding the Indian victory, there were intelligence and strategic failures on both sides. India's intelligence service failed to provide warning of such a large armoured force in the western sector. Moreover, the defending post was not heavily armed. Finally, they did not push home their advantage and destroy the fleeing Pakistani tanks while the IAF had them on the run. They did, however, destroy or capture some 36 tanks, one of the most disproportionate tank losses for one side in a single battle after World War II.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Pakistani troops, meanwhile, had underestimated the post's defensive capability due to the difficulty of approach over sand, conducting the attack at night and in full-moon light, against stiff resistance from a well-prepared defensive position located on a dominant height. Attacking with virtually no air cover, they took too long to close for an assault on the position, and failed to anticipate the availability of Indian close air support. Given that Pakistan's Sherman tanks and T-59/Type 59 Chinese tanks were slow on the sandy Thar Desert, some military analysts have opined that the attack may have been poorly planned and executed, given the terrain. Some Pakistani tanks suffered engine failure due to overheating in trying to extricate themselves, and were abandoned. The open desert battleground provided little to no cover for the tanks and infantry from air attacks. The plan to capture Longewala may have been good in conception, but failed due to lack of air cover. As a result, two tank regiments failed to take Longewala.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: For his part, the Indian company commander, Maj. (later Brig.) Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, was decorated with India's second-highest gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra. Several other awards were earned by members of the defending company and the battalion's commander. On the other hand, the Pakistani divisional commander was dismissed from service. However, the commander of the Pakistani 51 Brigade who mounted the daring attack and crossed into Indian territory was later awarded Pakistan's high award, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: British media reported the defence of Longewala. James Hatter compared the Battle of Longewala to Battle of Thermopylae in his article "Taking on the enemy at Longewala", describing it as the deciding moment of the 1971 war. Similarly, Field Marshal R. M. Carver, the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, visited Longewala a few weeks after the war to learn the details of the battle from Maj. Chandpuri.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: In 2008, the battle was the subject of disagreement, some officers of the time ascribing all the combat success to the air force. This led to Kuldip Singh Chandpuri suing for the token amount of one rupee.


title: Battle of Longewala

text: The Battle of Longewala was depicted in the 1997 Bollywood film "Border", which was directed by J. P. Dutta and starred Sunny Deol as Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, Jackie Shroff as Wg. Cdr. M.S. Bawa, Sunil Shetty as Assistant Commandant Bhairon Singh (BSF), and Akshaye Khanna as 2 Lt. Dharam Veer Bhan. The main criticism of the movie was that it showed Indian forces being in a terrible position before any sort of help came from the Indian Air Force. The movie also exaggerates the Indian casualties for dramatic purposes.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A historic and bustling city of commerce and heavy industry, Huntington has benefited from its location on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Guyandotte River. It is home to the Port of Huntington Tri-State, the second-busiest inland port in the United States. As of the 2020 census, its metro area is the largest in West Virginia, spanning seven counties across three states and having a population of 359,862. Huntington is the second-largest city in West Virginia, with a population of 46,842 at the 2020 census. Both the city and metropolitan area declined in population from the 2010 census, a trend that has been ongoing for six decades as Huntington has lost over 40,000 residents in that time frame.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Surrounded by extensive natural resources, the industrial sector is based in coal, oil, chemicals and steel, all of which support Huntington's diversified economy. The city is a vital rail-to-river transfer point for the marine transportation industry. Also, it is considered a scenic locale in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Its location was selected as ideal for the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, the predecessor of what would become CSX Transportation which still operates CSX Transportation-Huntington Division in the city to date. The railroad founded Huntington as one of the nation's first planned communities to facilitate the railroad and other transportation-related industries at the railway's western terminus. The site, previously a collection of agricultural homesteads, developed fast after the railroad's completion in 1871 and is eponymously named for the railroad company's founder, Collis Potter Huntington. The first identifiable permanent settlement, Holderby's Landing, was founded in 1775 in the Colony of Virginia. With the exception of the neighborhoods of Westmoreland and Spring Valley, most of the city is in Cabell County.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The city is the home of Marshall University as well as the Huntington Museum of Art; the Mountain Health Arena; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Huntington District); the Collis P. Huntington Historical Society and Railroad Museum; Camden Park, one of the world's oldest amusement parks; the headquarters of the CSX Transportation-Huntington Division, the largest division in the CSX network; the Special Metals Plant; and the Port of Huntington Tri-State, the largest river port in the United States. The largest employers are Marshall University, Cabell Huntington Hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center, CSX Transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Amazon, DirecTV, and the City of Huntington.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is in the southwestern corner of West Virginia, on the border with Ohio, on the southern bank of the Ohio River, at the confluence with the Guyandotte River. The city lies within the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Huntington is commonly divided into four main sections. The north/south divider is the CSX railroad tracks, while the east/west divider is First Street. Residents of Huntington are called "Huntingtonians."


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The Guyandotte River joins the Ohio River about east of downtown. Huntington fills the roughly three-mile wide flood plain of the south bank of the Ohio River for eighty square blocks and portions of the hills to the immediate south and southeast.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington was founded on lightly populated lands near Guyandotte as a C&O Railroad hub, on the southern bank of the Ohio River, at the confluence with the Guyandotte River. The site is at the southwestern corner of West Virginia on the border with the state of Ohio and near the border of both states with Kentucky. Discounting the period of French ownership, the land that was part of Guyandotte and later Huntington was originally part of the 28,628-acre (115.85 km) French and Indian War veteran's Savage Grant.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The area of greater Huntington, although situated in a Southern state, was long considered a western city in what was then the Colony of Virginia since the first permanent settlements were founded in 1775 in defiance of British injunctions against settlements west of the Alleghenies in the vicinity of Holderby's Landing.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Historically, the old Federal Era town of Guyandotte (now a neighborhood absorbed into Huntington proper) was first built upon in 1799 by French settlers of the Ohio Valley and has homes dating back to 1820 and a graveyard containing 18th-century French and colonial-era settlers, including surnames such as LeTulle, Holderby, and Buffington. A farmer James Holderby (1782–1855) purchased the lands in 1821 upon which much of Huntington now stands which is why the area was known as Holderby's Landing prior to 1870-71 when it was incorporated and renamed; Holderby's estate included the lands gifted in 1837 to found what is now Marshall University. The C&O purchased the area in 1870, and by 1873 when the railroad connected Richmond to Ohio, it had undergone a transition from a sleepy agricultural region with the nearby subscription Academy into a growing rail center poised to act as a springboard for a railroad to penetrate and connect the midwest with the eastern seaboard. The town of Guyandotte was officially absorbed in 1891.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Modern day Huntington is commonly divided into four main sections. The north/south divider is the CSX railroad tracks, while the east/west divider is First Street. A portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Most of the city is in Cabell County, of which it is the county seat. Huntington is influenced by Appalachian Culture, Southern culture, Midwestern culture, and Mid-Atlantic culture. It is often referred to as one of the northernmost cities in the South or one of the southernmost cities in the North.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington Metro Area is sometimes called KYOWVA, an acronym that refers to the three states that make up the region, (Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia). As of the 2010 census, the Huntington Metro Area is the largest in West Virginia with a population of 365,419. Huntington is combined with Charleston, the state capital, as the Huntington-Charleston TV market, the 64th-largest in the nation.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The first permanent settlement in modern-day Huntington was founded in 1775 as "Holderby's Landing." The modern City of Huntington was founded by Collis P. Huntington and Delos W. Emmons as the western terminus for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) on a tract of land west of the mouth of the Guyandotte River, between the Ohio River and Twelve Pole Creek. Collis P. Huntington was one of the "Big Four" of western railroading who built the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker).


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington was created as a hub for the C&O, which, once completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of the Virginias to have a rail link from the James River at Richmond, Virginia to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the Ohio River resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte into part of a large new city called Huntington. The C&O Railroad expanded east to Newport News (and coal piers), and west to eventually reach Cincinnati and Chicago in later years. After merging with several other railroads, C&O is now known as CSX Transportation.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The city was incorporated in 1871 just west of the earlier city of Guyandotte. Guyandotte, which became a neighborhood of Huntington in 1891, was founded in 1799 on land that was originally part of the French and Indian War veteran's Savage Grant. Meriwether Lewis passed the Guyandotte and Big Sandy River peninsula on or about September 20, 1803, on his way down the Ohio River before meeting up with William Clark in Clarksville, Ind.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington was the second American city to feature electric streetcars in the early years (after San Francisco), until they were gradually replaced with gasoline-powered buses. Some of the old trolley tracks can still be seen. Camden Park, which at 110 years old is one of the world's oldest amusement parks, was built in 1903 to encourage ridership on the trolleys (then owned by the Camden Interstate Railway Company).


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington's "boom" period occurred from the founding in 1871 until the Great Flood of 1937, which claimed 5 lives, caused millions of dollars in damage, left tens of thousands homeless, and led to the creation of Huntington's flood walls in 1938.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Of the 40,000 people living in the flooded areas of Huntington, 25,000 were made refugees as fresh water and fuel was scarce. 11,000 people applied for Red Cross aid during the flood and the relief period.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: World War II brought another economic boom, but that was short-lived and ended along with the war in the 1940s. Huntington's population began to drop after 1950 because of urban sprawl and the decline of the steel and manufacturing industries. In the 1970s, federal urban renewal programs destroyed several parts of downtown. The industrial base continued to expand through the 1970s, but beginning in the early 1980s the steel and manufacturing industry in the region imploded, with massive layoffs and mill and plant closures.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: A shift to the city's economic base began in the late 1980s to focus more on education, tourism, and services, based mainly on healthcare/medicine and biotechnology. Although Huntington successfully shifted the focus of its economy, the population has never rebounded to its industrial-era highs. While 86,353 people lived in the city proper in 1950, a combination of suburbanization and economic turbulence caused a sharp decrease in population to just 51,475 in 2000.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington has seen a major revival since the opening of the Pullman Square Town Center on the vacant lot formerly known as the "Superblock" in 2005, the filming of the Warner Bros. motion picture "We Are Marshall" in 2006, and the filming of ABC's Food Revolution in 2010. The modern Huntington Metro Area spans 7 counties across 3 states and is the largest in West Virginia with a population of more than 360,000. The largest employers are Marshall University, Cabell Huntington Hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center, Amazon, DirecTV, and the City of Huntington.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Shortly after Pullman Square was constructed, the city began work on upgrading the streetscape on Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street. Ninth Street was formerly known as the Ninth Street Plaza and was closed to vehicle traffic for many years. Once anchored by Pullman Square on the north end, the old plaza was removed in 2006 and Ninth Street has once again become attractive to businesses. Fourth Avenue, known as the "Old Main Corridor", has been upgraded with new lighting, artistic and pedestrian-friendly design concepts, and bicycle lanes.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Efforts to redevelop Huntington started with the construction of the $10.5 million Huntington Civic Arena, which was the largest arena in the state when it opened in 1977. The 25-year delay in construction of what became Pullman Square caused the building to become a money losing effort for the city and is now managed privately by SMG. After renovation in 1997, and 2010, the arena has now been included in "Billboard" "New or Renovated Venues to Watch" list for 2013. Huntington's arena landed at No. 14 in a list of 17 venues across the globe. The exterior was also renovated in 2020-2021.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The culinary scene in the city has enjoyed a renaissance in the city since the early 2000s. Notable local restaurants include Fat Patty's, Jim's Spaghetti and Steak House, Backyard Pizza, Black Sheep Burrito and Brews, Navarino Bay, and Le Bistro.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington Mall, the largest mall in the state, opened a few years after the Arena in 1981. When the mall was built, the only other businesses around it were two bars and an Exxon gas station. Since the mall's opening, several retailers have built around the mall, including four hotels and several restaurants, as well as a Walmart Supercenter, the first Best Buy in West Virginia, and the first Sheetz gas station/convenience store in southern West Virginia. The Huntington Mall has a yearly economic impact of close to $400 million.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Shops at Heritage Station are in the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot, originally constructed in 1887. The complex includes an original steam engine with a "Pullman" train car, and a building that used to house one of Huntington's first banks—which was the easternmost bank robbed by the James-Younger Gang. That structure is currently occupied by a specialty beer and cheese shop. Heritage Station was turned into a shopping center called "Heritage Village" during the dark days of Urban Renewal in the 1970s. For decades, the station sat hidden and virtually unused just two blocks from the city center, until Create Huntington got involved in 2006. Today, Heritage Station is an artisan retail complex, with locally owned shops, and home to public events like the annual Diamond Teeth Mary Blues Festival, named for the blues singer born in the town.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In 2017, Huntington joined a host of other municipalities and local governments in the area suing eight pharmaceutical companies, claiming their products harmed Huntington's welfare, leading to a drug crisis in the city and surrounding county. Included in the lawsuits are companies like McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp, among others.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: At the time of Huntington's founding, Holderby's Landing was already the home of Marshall College State Normal School (now Marshall University). The university was founded in 1837 as a private subscription school by residents of Guyandotte and the surrounding area. The landmark Old Main, which now serves as the primary administrative building for the university, was built on land known as Maple Grove, at the time the home of the Mount Hebron Church in what was then the state of Virginia. John Laidley, a local attorney, hosted the meeting which led to the founding of Marshall Academy, which was named after Laidley's friend, the eminent John Marshall who had served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from January 1801 to July 1835.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: On March 30, 1838, the institution was formally dedicated by the Virginia General Assembly as Marshall Academy. In 1858, the Virginia General Assembly changed the name to Marshall College. On June 20, 1863, Cabell County, Virginia, was one of the 50 counties separated from Virginia at the height of the American Civil War to form the State of West Virginia, and the college fell within the new state. In 1867, the West Virginia Legislature rededicated the institution as a teacher training facility and renamed it State Normal School of Marshall College. This began the history of the college as a state-supported post-secondary institution.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The university is composed of eight undergraduate colleges and schools: the College of Liberal Arts (COLA), the College of Fine Arts (COFA), the College of Education and Human Services (COEHS), the College of Information Technology and Engineering (CITE), the Elizabeth McDowell Lewis College of Business (LCOB), the College of Science (COS), the College of Health Professions (COHP), and the College of Arts and Media (CAM), and five graduate colleges, the general Graduate College, the Graduate School of Education and Professional Development, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy, and the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, a regional center for cancer research which has a national reputation for its programs in rural health care delivery.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Marshall's sports teams are known as the "Thundering Herd", a name deriving from a Zane Grey novel released in 1925. The home field for the football program is James F. Edwards Field at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Basketball is played at the Cam Henderson Center. Soccer is played at Veterans Memorial Soccer Stadium. Marshall participates in FBS for football) as a member of Conference USA. Sports at the school include women's softball, swimming & diving, tennis, volleyball, and track & field; men's football, baseball; and teams for both genders in basketball, cross country, golf, and soccer.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: On November 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 jet transporting 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, staff, and supporters crashed just short of the Tri-State Airport in adjoining Ceredo, West Virginia. Everyone on board was killed.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The story was dramatized in the Warner Bros. motion picture "We Are Marshall", starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox. The film was released locally on December 12, 2006, and nationally on December 22, 2006. The movie depicts the aftermath of the aviation disaster for the families and university.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Because of its position in the westernmost and lowest area of the state, the city is on the northern limits of a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa"), unlike the "highlands" of West Virginia, which are in the Allegheny Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. This location gives the city an even four seasons, with each season beginning around the calendar date. Huntington is made humid by the Ohio River, but summers are not as hot as they are further south and west. Snowfall generally falls in moderate amounts, accumulating an average seasonally, and the greatest 24-hour fall was during the March 1993 Storm of the Century. Each year on average, 24 days reach and 16–17 days stay below freezing. The highest recorded temperature was on July 28, 1930, and the lowest was on February 9, 1899.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington's central business district is directly between the Ohio River and the CSX Railroad track, east of the Robert C. Byrd Bridge, and west of Hal Greer Blvd (16th Street). There are also 2 smaller business districts: "Old Central City", well known for its antique shops, and one in Guyandotte. The city also has a wealth of architecture, including Gothic, Art Deco, and Edwardian Renaissance, along with many Craftsman, Colonial, Classical, and Tudor Revival homes.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Shortly after Pullman Square was constructed, the city began upgrading the streetscape on 9th Street and the "Old Main Corridor" section of 4th Avenue. 9th Street was formerly known as the Ninth Street Plaza and was closed to vehicle traffic for years, which effectively killed most businesses there. Once anchored by Pullman Square on the north end, the old plaza was removed in 2006 and 9th Street has once again begun attracting businesses. The section of Fourth Avenue that connects downtown to Marshall University, known as the "Old Main Corridor", was also upgraded. The corridor was upgraded with new lighting, artistic and pedestrian-friendly design concepts, and bicycle lanes.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Marshall University purchased the old Anderson-Newcomb/Stone & Thomas Building, which was built in 1902, with the intent of converting that historic structure into a state-of-the-art visual arts center. The goal being to raise the college's presence as an innovative institution, give the visual art program more space to expand, and afford students more opportunities to become engaged in community initiatives and improve the quality of life for everyone in the city.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Since its founding as the western terminus of the C&O Railroad, Huntington has served as a major break of bulk point between rail traffic and the Ohio River/Mississippi River watershed. The Huntington Division is still the largest in the CSX Transportation network. A large portion of the division's revenue comes from hauling coal out of the coalfields of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. The Huntington District is the largest of 10 operating divisions on the network. It serves the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. CSX's Huntington Division main office is in the historic former C&O passenger station downtown.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Several heavy industrial plants line the Ohio River and the Guyandotte River including the Port of Huntington-Tristate, the largest port in West Virginia and the 17th-largest in the United States. It is the nation's second largest inland port. Included in the port's area is of the Ohio River from the mouth of the Scioto River in Portsmouth, Ohio to the northern border of Gallia County, Ohio, of the Big Sandy River, and of the Kanawha River.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is commonly divided into four main sections. The north/south divider is the CSX railroad tracks, while the east/west divider is First Street. Within those sections, there are many neighborhoods, including:


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Downtown Huntington Historic District is a national historic district. The original district encompassed 59 contributing buildings; a boundary increase added 53 more contributing buildings. It includes the central business district and several municipal and governmental buildings. It contains the majority of the historic concentration of downtown commercial buildings.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Notable buildings include Huntington City Hall, Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church (c.1886/1912/1935), Trinity Episcopal Church (1882), Davis Opera House/Huntington Theater (c. 1885), Love Hardware Building (c. 1884), the Broh Building (1885), The Wesvanawha Building (1929-originally Lewis Building), the Anderson-Newcomb/Stone & Thomas Building (c. 1902), the Frederick Building (1906) the Morrison Building (1919), Keith-Albee Theater (1928), West Virginia Building (c. 1924), and the Gideon Building (c. 1915). In the district are the separately listed Carnegie Public Library, Cabell County Courthouse, U.S. Post Office and Court House, and Campbell-Hicks House. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. A boundary increase occurred in 2007. Most notably, the old Davis Opera House/Huntington Theatre has recently been redeveloped into vibrant commercial space featuring more than a dozen shops and restaurants.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Arguably, the most famous attraction in Huntington is Keith-Albee Theatre, a former Vaudeville palace in the "Art Deco" style from the 1920s and one of the architectural masterpieces of Downtown Huntington, on Fourth Avenue. Now known as the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center, the Keith was originally built in 1928 as the Keith-Albee Theater, and under the supervision of vaudeville tycoons B. F. Keith and Edward Albee as part of their Keith-Albee vaudeville circuit, the Keith-Albee was the second-largest theater in the United States at that time, behind the Roxy in New York City. The theater was designed by Thomas W. Lamb who designed approximately 153 theaters around the world. Only forty-three of these grand theaters are still open, and seventy-one have been demolished. "The Keith" has been undergoing a full restoration since 2009. This included the restoration of the famous front sign in 2012. After standing over Fourth Avenue for decades and being featured in hundreds of pictures and postcards, two Hollywood movie premieres, and being struck by lightning numerous times; the sign had to be taken down in 2011. A massive "Save Our Sign" effort was organized that funded the full restoration of the sign, which was reinstalled in May 2012.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Ritter Park Historic District is a national historic district in South Side. The district encompasses 68 contributing buildings and 5 contributing structures, including the Ritter Park municipal park. The city purchased the park property in 1908. Dwellings in the district represent a number of architecture styles popular from the years 1913 to 1940, including Colonial Revival, Bungalow/craftsman, and Tudor Revival. Notable buildings include the Ritter Park Apartments (1932), Weingartner House (c. 1923), Cammack House (1923), Marshall University President's House (1923), and Park Terrace Apartments (c. 1939–1940). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is home to "Central City", which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is loosely bound by 3rd Avenue to the north, 5th Avenue to the south, 10th Street to the east, and 6th–7th Streets to the west.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Old Main at Marshall University, sits on Hal Greer Boulevard at 4th Avenue, in the Highlawn District, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Trustees of Marshall Academy purchased the land at Maple Grove for $40 in 1839. The building has been renovated several times. The 1870 renovation is the earliest section of Old Main to survive to the present.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington Museum of Art, in the hills above Ritter Park, features numerous collections and exhibitions; it is also home to the C. Fred Edwards Conservatory.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Touma Museum of Medicine in downtown Huntington was established in 1994 to preserve the history of medicine, and to allow visitors to review a comprehensive regional medical museum. The only comparable museums can be found in cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. The collection houses thousands of pieces collected over a 25-year period by Joseph B. Touma, M.D.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Heritage Farm Museum and Village is an open-air village and series of museums relating to Appalachian Culture and History from the 19th century onward.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Museum of Radio and Technology is near the west end of the park in a renovated elementary school. The Cabell County Courthouse and the Carnegie Library downtown also hold historical interest.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: One block south, 5th Avenue is noted for its many historic church buildings. The city is also the site of an Adena Native American burial mound.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 49,138 people, 21,774 households, and 11,000 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 25,146 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 86.9% White, 8.6% African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.4% of the population.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: There were 21,774 households, of which 22.9% had children under age 18 living with them, 32.2% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 49.5% were non-families. 39.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.83.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The median age was 35.4 years. 18% of residents were under age 18; 16.7% were 18 to 24; 25.8% were 25 to 44; 24.2% were 45 to 64; and 15.2% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.6% male and 51.4% female.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 51,475 people, 22,955 households, and 12,235 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,234.1 people per square mile (1,248.4/km). There were 25,888 housing units at an average density of 1,626.5 per square mile (627.9/km). The ethnic makeup of the city was 89.61% White, 7.49% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.82% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.30% from other races, and 1.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.85% of the population.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: There were 22,955 households, of which 20.6% had children under age 18 living with them, 36.9% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.7% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.80.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In the city the age distribution of the population shows 17.7% under age 18, 17.5% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% 65 years old or older. The median age was 37. For every 100 females, there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The median income for a household in the city was $23,234, and the median income for a family was $34,756. Males had a median income of $30,040 versus $21,198 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,717. About 17.5% of families and 24.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.8% of those under the age of 18 and 12.5% of those 65 and older.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Since 1985 Huntington has operated under a strong mayor/city council form of government. The mayor is elected to four-year terms in partisan elections contested at the same time as United States presidential elections. The current mayor is former at-large councilman Steve Williams, a Democrat who is currently in his third term. Mayors in Huntington are term-limited to three terms and have the authority to veto acts of the city council.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The city also serves as the county seat of Cabell County. The Cabell County Courthouse is on a downtown parcel that covers an entire city block. Within the building are the offices for all of the county's elected officials and their employees, including the sheriff, county commissioners, county clerk, magistrates, and Circuit Court judges.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington's city council members are elected to four-year terms at the same time as the mayor. There are eleven members of the council, nine of whom represent single-member districts, while the other two are elected at large. The city council has the authority to draft and debate ordinances and can override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority. There are currently seven Democrats and four Republicans on the city council.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington Police Department (HPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving Huntington. The Huntington Police Department traces its history to 1872 with the appointment of Isaac H. Mitchell as the first Town Marshal of the city. The current police department is composed of 92 sworn officers and a professional support staff of 6 civilians. Citing double-digit drops in overall crime, and drops of more than 20% in violent crime, HPD has been recognized by the U.S. Attorney's Office as the "Law Enforcement Agency of the Year" for 2011 and 2012. On November 1, 2021, Karl Colder was approved by the Huntington City Council to be the HPD Chief of Police. Colder previously worked with the DEA and is the first African American police chief in Huntington’s history.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Law enforcement and security for Marshall University is provided by the Marshall University Police Department. This protection includes the main campus area (including the streets on or immediately surrounding campus) as well as all other university owned or managed buildings and property, including the Marshall University Medical Center at Cabell Huntington Hospital.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: As the enforcement arm of the Cabell County court system, the Cabell County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the security of the Court House and property, public schools, service of court-ordered writs, protective and peace orders, warrants, tax levies, prisoner transportation and traffic enforcement. Deputy Sheriffs are sworn law enforcement officials, with full arrest authority anywhere in Cabell County granted by the constitution of West Virginia and the county Sheriff.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In addition to both municipal and county law enforcement agencies, Huntington is also home to a detachment of the West Virginia State Police. Troopers from this detachment are assigned to both Cabell and Wayne counties and can serve as a backup to any neighboring counties.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The city of Huntington is protected by 106 professional firefighters of the Huntington Fire Department (HFD), founded in 1897. The department currently provides nine fully staffed companies with a complement of support staff and apparatus responding from six strategically located fire stations throughout the city. The six stations consist of six engine companies, two ladder trucks, a rescue truck, a marine unit, and several reserve engines, reserve utility trucks, and staff vehicles.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is on the southern bank of the Ohio River and is the river's largest port area. The Huntington Fire Department is capable of water/underwater rescue operations and is the host locality to the Regional # 6 West Virginia Regional Response Team which provides Hazardous Materials and Technical Rescue Team responses. The department holds a Class 2 rating from the Insurance Services Office (ISO) and was the first department in the State to achieve this status. Last departmental evaluation was performed in 2010.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In 2017, Jan Rader, the first paid female fire chief in the history of West Virginia, was sworn in as Chief of the Huntington Fire Department.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The problem of organizing for protection against fire was not given much thought until 1874, when A.C. Young and a group of associates organized a hook and ladder company. Young was given City Council authorization to contract for a hand-drawn hook and ladder truck. The Council approved $450 toward the purchase of the new truck. It was built locally by M.A. Jones, and Huntington's first fire company was born. In 1874, the city council enacted an ordinance creating a fire department to consist of an Engine Company, a Hose Company, and the previously formed Hook & Ladder Company. Mr. S. Sexton was named fire chief, and the personnel was all volunteer. in May 1875 the city purchased a hand-operated engine and a hand-drawn hose reel from Portsmouth, Ohio, for $725. To provide a water supply for the department, large 500 gallon cisterns were made in numerous locations in the city. On August 5, 1875, the organization was complete and the department was ready for action. A tower bell for alarms was bought in 1875 and more cisterns were placed in 1876.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Thomas Sikes was Captain of Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, and Eustance Gibson was Captain of Excelsior Fire Engine and Hose Co. No. 2. Both were Civil War veterans, well known and respected early settlers. Many of the volunteer personnel composed of well known early settlers, merchants and professional men, many of whose descendants are living in Huntington today. In 1876 a night-watchman was hired at $3 per month to look after the station at night and sound the alarm in case of a fire. This was the first paid employee of the fire department. In 1879 J.W. Verlander became the first Fire Chief, and J.M. Boone became chief in 1880 until 1895. In 1881, four Gamewell Fire Alarm Boxes were installed in the downtown area. These fire alarm boxes were maintained by the telephone company. The system kept growing, and in 1928 construction was completed on a new Gamewell Fire Alarm System and Fire Alarm Headquarters were placed in operation in 1929, and remained in service until 7:32AM November 1, 1986. The Gamewell Fire Alarm System served the City of Huntington faithfully for 105 years. There never was a loss of life or major disaster because of a system malfunction.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In 1883 the department first and only horse-drawn steam fire engine was purchased from the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company of Cincinnati. The engine was brought up the Ohio River to Huntington on a steamboat. Also in 1883 the department was reorganized on a part-paid basis, but continued to be largely volunteer until 1897 when the department was again reorganized with a paid chief, four paid drivers and a force of firefighters who were paid by each alarm they answered. Each firefighter held down regular jobs the rest of the time. This was the beginning of Huntington's full-time paid fire department.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: From 1913 to 1915 five pieces of motorized equipment were bought for the department. These consisted of a chief's car, two hose trucks, a pumping engine and an aerial ladder truck. This was the beginning of motorization. In April 1926 the last two teams of horse-drawn hose companies were led away from Hose Companies No. 5 in Guyandotte and No. 6 in Walnut Hills.. The day of the dashing fire horse was over. The old St. Clouds Fire Station is the city's reminder of the horse-drawn era. The horse-bitten window sills still remain today.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In February 1929 Huntington's firefighters were issued a charter establishing a local union. Under the International Association of Fire Fighters, Huntington's firefighters were given the 289th local in the U.S. and Canada


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Fire Prevention Bureau was established in the early fifties, because of the increasing number of fires in homes and businesses, along with the city's Fire Prevention Week. Early functions of the Bureau included the Fire Prevention Parade and a contest to select Miss Flame, a beauty queen to reign over the weeks activities. All contestants in the competition were required to have red hair in the earlier years. The Fire Prevention Parade was held the first Monday in October, and a tradition that is carried on today since the fifties. Fire Departments from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky participate annually in Huntington's Fire Prevention Parade. The Huntington Fire Department implemented the School Fire Patrol Program in the city in 1950. This programs said to be one of the oldest in the nation today. Other events in the mid to late fifties included the establishment of the Tri-State Fire School. The Tri-State Fire School is still used today to train firefighters.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: In 1965, the city built its first new fire station since 1926. The city's 100th birthday was commemorated when the Centennial Fire Station was placed in service on January 13, 1972, replacing the long-outmoded Central Fire Station. The Centennial Fire Station is still in service today. In 2004, a new station was opened that replaced St. Cloud station 4. The old station has been in service as a fire house for over 100 years. It now houses the traffic division for the City Of Huntington. The 1980s were tough for the department, several firefighters retired, and budget cuts forced the closure of several stations. The Gamewell Fire Alarm System was deactivated and Fire Alarm Headquarters closed. (The Old Fire Alarm Headquarters has been converted into a fire museum today.) Dispatching was combined with the Police Department, marking the beginning of 911 emergency dispatching.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The two largest hospitals in Huntington are St. Mary's Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital. St. Mary's and Cabell Huntington, both owned and operated by Mountain Health Network, are jointly designated as the only trauma center in the region. St. Mary's is the largest medical facility Huntington and the second largest in the tri-state region at 393 beds. The medical center is the largest private employer in Cabell County with over 2,600 employees. As a teaching facility associated with the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, St. Mary's trains medical residents in several specialties. The hospital campus is home to the St. Mary's School of Nursing, the St. Mary's School of Radiologic Technology, and the St. Mary's School of Respiratory Care. All three programs are associated with Marshall University. St. Mary's is also home to a regional heart institute, regional cancer center, and regional neuroscience center.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Cabell Huntington Hospital is a not-for-profit, regional referral center with 303 staffed beds. Cabell Huntington cares for patients from more than 29 counties throughout West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Opened in 1956, it is also a teaching hospital and home to the Marshall University Medical Center, which includes the Joan C. Edwards Schools of Medicine and Nursing. Cabell Huntington is also home to the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Hoops Family Children's Hospital, and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health; a distinguished leader nationwide for rural health care delivery.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington Veteran's Administration (VA) Medical Center, on Spring Valley Drive, is an 80-bed medical and surgical care facility that offers primary inpatient and outpatient care, along with mental health services and subspeciality outpatient options. It is also the primary teaching facility for the Marshall University School of Medicine and is also affiliated with the University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine. In 1993, the Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition expanded the hospital's surgery, radiology, laboratory, cardiology, nuclear medicine, and rehabilitation services and renovated inpatient care facilities. In 1998, a $10 million research facility was completed. The hospital is also the home of the Marshall University School of Pharmacy.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The city is also home to the state's largest psychiatric hospital, Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington also is known for several health issues including opioid addiction and morbid obesity being featured on Jamie Oliver's food revolution after being voted "the fattest city in America" in the late 2000's


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The growth of Huntington and its economy was originally based on steel processing, shipping, manufacturing, and transportation through the 1970s, then the city experienced deindustrialization which cost residents tens of thousands of low-skill, high-wage jobs. Huntington has since been adapting to the collapse of the region's steel industry. The primary industries have shifted to high technology, such as, the film and television industries, health care, biomedical technology, finance, tourism, and the service sector. The Amazon Customer Service Center in Huntington employs approximately 500–700 people.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington has grown its economic base in recent years to include technology, retail, finance, education, and medical care (which constitutes the largest proportion of the city's employment). The largest employers are Marshall University, Cabell Huntington Hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center, Amazon, DirecTV, and the City of Huntington.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Area retail is anchored by the Huntington Mall, the largest mall in the state, and a healthy downtown retail sector including many boutique shops along the Old Main Corridor, Third Avenue, and Pullman Square.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The newest area of development is Kinetic Park, a premier technology park on Sixteenth Street, 1/4 mile north of interstate 64. The flagship of the development is Amazon's new . Customer Service Center, which opened in November 2011. Other development in Kinetic Park includes a Spring Hill Suites by Marriott hotel, a Hampton Inn hotel, a Bob Evans restaurant, Goldy Chrysler, and the Huntington Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics clinic.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The first large manufacturing business in Huntington was the Ensign Car Works, founded in Huntington in 1872 by Ely Ensign and William H. Barnum, who managed a car wheel manufacturing company, the Barnum and Richardson Company, in Connecticut. The company was incorporated on November 1, 1872. Financing was provided primarily by Barnum and Collis P. Huntington, who was one of the principals in the Central Pacific Railroad and founder of the City of Huntington.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: For the first ten years of production, Ensign manufactured iron parts such as railroad car wheels. The company began building wooden freight cars in the early 1880s, selling a large portion of its inventory to the Chesapeake and Ohio, Southern Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, all of which were controlled by Huntington. In 1962, the Huntington ACF plant began building a revolutionary new design that quickly became the standard of the rail car industry. The car, known as the CenterFlow covered hopper car, was developed by ACF to transport huge volumes of light-weight, high-bulk commodities, such as plastic pellets. By 1992, ACF had manufactured more than 100,000 hopper cars. The sprawling ACF Industries rail car plant once had many as 1,600 employees with an annual payroll of $30 million. Now, reports indicate only four people work there – and three of them are security guards.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is in the company's Southern Region and is the largest of ten operating divisions on the network. The division comprises the former railroads Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O); Baltimore and Ohio (B&O); Western Maryland (WM); Louisville and Nashville (L&N); and the Clinchfield. It serves the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. CSX's Huntington Division main office is in the historical former C&O passenger station downtown. The office is home to a regional office that is home to the divisions's top managers, a centralized yardmasters and train dispatchers center, a freight car light repair shop and a locomotive heavy repair facility in the city.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is also home to Heiner's Bakery. Founded in 1905, Heiner's employs nearly 500 people in its facility. The bakery was privately owned by the Heiner family, and marketed exclusively under the "Heiner's" label until it was acquired by the Earthgrains division of Anheuser-Busch in 1994. Six months later, A-B spun off its bread business as the stand-alone Earthgrains Corporation. In 2000, Earthgrains merged with the Sara Lee Corporation. In 2011, Sara Lee sold its bread business, including the trademark Sara Lee, to the worldwide Grupo Bimbo, which is based in Mexico City. Today the bakery markets under the "Heiner's", "Earthgrains", "Sara Lee" and "Bimbo" brands.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is still a base for the metalworking and welding trades with the repair of railroad rolling stock, barges, and river boat equipment. Major fabricating firms—such as Huntington Special Metals, Steel of West Virginia, Martin Steel, Huntington Plating, Richwood Industries, Evans Welding and Fabricating Co, and Hammers Industries—serve the railroads, river transportation, steelmaking, coal, oil, natural gas, electrical, windpower, biofuel, and other important industries.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is influenced by Appalachian Culture, Southern culture, Midwestern culture, and Mid-Atlantic culture.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The 2006 Warner Bros. motion picture "We Are Marshall", the 2010 ABC series "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution", the 2017 television series "My Brother, My Brother and Me", and the Netflix documentary "Heroin(e)" were all filmed in the city.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Huntington is home to eleven public parks around the city, and an amusement park just west of the city. The most frequented being Harris Riverfront Park in the downtown and Ritter Park in South Side. Camden Park, an amusement park, is also adjacent to the city. Camden Park is West Virginia's only amusement park. The park has been open since 1903.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Harris Riverfront Park is downtown, on the Ohio River. After years of sluggish usage from the general public, the park has seen a renewed interest in recent years from citizens, city government, media and local businesses. The public land continues to host a number of concert and music events, including free open-air movie showings, and was included in citywide construction of additional surveillance cameras which will provide free public-access wireless internet connections. The park is situated between the city flood wall and the Ohio River, and is noted for its scenic riverview and grassy recreational area.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The crown jewel of the public park system is Ritter Park (named for Charles L. Ritter, who donated the land), on land originally purchased as the site for an incinerator. The park is maintained by the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District. It was created in 1913 by Rufus Switzer, a city council member of West Virginia. It consists of numerous lengthy walking and cycling trails along Four Pole Creek, which runs the entire length of the park and is crossed by many wooden and stone footbridges. There are also restroom facilities, picnic tables, a shelter with grills and electrical outlets, a children's playground, an amphitheater for small concerts and plays, an award-winning rose garden, and a new dog park.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The park was officially opened in September 1913. Architect Gus Wofford was hired by the city to design the park and its amenities. His works continued till the 1930s and includes bridges that cross streams, tennis courts, greenhouse, and picnic facilities. It is in the Ritter Park Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: Ritter Park is one of the 2012 Great Places of America listed by American Planning Association (APA). Every year APA selects great places having true sense of place, culture and historic interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow. The list of "APA Great Places" is a very useful and informative source for local residents and tourists who are looking for an enjoyable public place. Ritter Park is one of the busiest places in Huntington, but still maintaining its peaceful and serene environment.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Rose Garden and the playground are among the amenities of the Ritter Park that attract tourists. The Rose Garden, including the "Room with a View", is used for weddings and special occasions. The Rose Garden has more than 3,500 rose plants. The garden bordered by stone walls is designed to place benches for the events. In addition to the weddings, the annual Rose Show and the Summer Nature Programs are presented here. Each year the roses are tested and provided by the American Rose Society.


title: Huntington, West Virginia

text: The Huntington area has wrestled with health problems for several years, problems that were highlighted in 2010 by the television show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC.