40 Fun Facts About Huntington, West Virginia

Which film's lead was partly modelled on Joseph Sullivan, a patient at Huntington's Autism Services Center?

Rain Man star Dustin Hoffman drew on Joseph Sullivan for Raymond Babbitt, and Sullivan's mother Ruth, who founded the Huntington centre, served as a consultant on the film.

Which comedian came to Marshall University in Huntington on a baseball scholarship but never played?

Billy Crystal arrived in 1965, but Marshall suspended its baseball program during his first year and he did not come back as a sophomore.

Which actor plays coach Jack Lengyel in We Are Marshall, the film about Huntington's 1970 plane crash?

Matthew McConaughey played Lengyel, who rebuilt Marshall football with walk-ons and athletes from other sports after the crash killed all 75 people aboard.

Which British chef set his Emmy-winning 2010 ABC series about school lunches in Huntington?

Jamie Oliver picked Huntington for Food Revolution because it was statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country, then took the second season to Los Angeles.

Camden Park, West Virginia's only amusement park, was built near Huntington in 1903 to win riders for what?

Trolleys were the point: the Camden Interstate Railway Company opened the park as a picnic spot, hoping weekend outings would fill its cars.

Despite its name, the Huntington Mall, West Virginia's largest, actually stands in which nearby community?

Barboursville, a village east of Huntington, got the mall in 1981, when its only neighbours were two bars and a gas station.

Which Hall of Fame receiver starred at Huntington's Marshall University before the Vikings drafted him in 1998?

Randy Moss caught four touchdown passes in the 1996 title game as Marshall went unbeaten and won the Division I-AA championship.

Which nickname do Marshall University's teams in Huntington share with a 1925 Western novel by Zane Grey?

Thundering Herd was pinned on the team by a Huntington sports editor, but it only became official in a 1965 vote that left the rival name Big Green to the fundraisers.

Which food has had its own annual West Virginia festival in Huntington since 2005, eating contest included?

Hot dogs here come West Virginia style, with chili sauce, chopped onion, coleslaw and yellow mustard, and the festival also stages wiener dog races.

Which founder of Negro History Week finished high school in Huntington and later ran the school as principal?

Carter G. Woodson worked in West Virginia's coal mines before entering Douglass High School at twenty; he earned his diploma in under two years and returned as principal in 1900.

Huntington was founded in 1871 as the western terminus of which railway running from Richmond, Virginia?

Chesapeake and Ohio trains reached the river here in 1873, fulfilling a long-held dream of a rail link from the James River to the Ohio Valley.

Collis P. Huntington, who gave the West Virginia city his name, was one of the Big Four behind which railroad?

Central Pacific made his fortune: a gold rush merchant in Sacramento, he joined Stanford, Hopkins and Crocker to build part of the first US transcontinental line.

Which river meets the Ohio at Huntington, where an older town of the same name was absorbed in 1891?

Guyandotte the town dates from 1799, seven decades before Huntington existed, and it survives as one of the city's neighbourhoods at the river mouth.

At the 2020 census, which was the only city in West Virginia with more residents than Huntington?

Charleston, the state capital, counted 48,864 people to Huntington's 46,842; Huntington had been far bigger in 1950, when it peaked at 86,353.

Which Kentucky city joins Huntington in the name of the tri-state metropolitan area that locals call Kyova?

Ashland anchors the Kentucky side of a metro area that crosses two state lines; the local nickname blends Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.

Huntington is the seat of which West Virginia county, named for an early governor of Virginia?

Cabell County, organized in 1809, honours William H. Cabell, though the Westmoreland neighbourhood at Huntington's western edge spills into Wayne County.

Which long-serving senator gives his name to the bridge from downtown Huntington across to Ohio?

Robert C. Byrd won the funding for the 1994 span, which replaced a Gothic-style bridge of 1926 whose two-ton spires were saved for display.

Huntington's Memorial Arch, West Virginia's only triumphal arch, honours service in which conflict?

World War I service is what the county's memorial association set out to mark, building the arch of gray Indiana limestone between 1924 and 1929.

What did Huntington build along the Ohio River after the river's record 1937 crest swamped much of the city?

A floodwall was begun in 1938 and finished in 1943; the work was allowed to carry on through World War II because so many of the city's plants were vital to defense.

Which 1928 Huntington vaudeville palace, designed by Thomas W. Lamb, hosted the premiere of We Are Marshall?

Keith-Albee Theatre was thought to be the second largest theater in the United States when it opened, and its restored sign went back up over Fourth Avenue in 2012.

Which Huntington-born NBA great was the first African American to play for a major college team in West Virginia?

Hal Greer broke that barrier at Marshall in the 1950s, then played fifteen NBA seasons for the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers; 16th Street now carries his name.

In which sport did unseeded Marshall University of Huntington stun Indiana in overtime to win an NCAA title?

Men's soccer delivered the title on a golden goal, after Marshall had already knocked out top seed Clemson and defending champions Georgetown.

The 1970 plane crash near Huntington killed a Marshall football team flying home from a loss to which school?

East Carolina had won 17–14 in Greenville, North Carolina, that afternoon; the chartered jet hit a hill just short of the runway on its approach.

Which Marshall University landmark in Huntington is shut off every November 14 until spring?

The memorial fountain, a 13-foot sculpture designed by Harry Bertoia, carries a plaque naming all 75 people killed in the 1970 plane crash.

Which Huntington-born actor went from an Oscar nomination for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to voicing Chucky?

Brad Dourif started out with the Huntington Community Players while attending Marshall University; his grandfather had co-founded the Standard Ultramarine and Color Company in the city.

Which pie-in-the-face TV comic graduated from Huntington High School and Marshall University?

Soupy Sales began as a scriptwriter and disc jockey at Huntington radio station WHTN, and claimed he and his guests were hit by more than 20,000 pies.

Which Dungeons & Dragons podcast do Huntington's McElroy brothers play with their father, Clint?

The Adventure Zone began in 2014 with a starter set, and its first graphic novel topped a New York Times best-seller list; the brothers also filmed a TV series in Huntington.

Which future NBA guard led Huntington High School to its third straight state basketball title in 2007?

O. J. Mayo spent a single season at Huntington High, ending it with a 103–61 rout in the state final, and went third overall in the 2008 NBA draft.

Which quarterback of Huntington's unbeaten 1999 Marshall team became a first-round pick of the Jets?

Chad Pennington finished fifth in the 1999 Heisman voting after a 13–0 season, and in 2000 he was the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft.

Huntington's East End Bridge was renamed in 2006 for which Marshall alumnus, a Hall of Fame center for the Browns?

Frank Gatski, nicknamed Gunner, was Marshall's first member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the school retired his number 72 in 2005.

Which post-apocalyptic video game set in West Virginia features Camden Park, Huntington's amusement park?

Fallout 76 recreates real places across the state, and Camden Park's managers reported a jump in demand for park merchandise after the game was announced.

Which wooden roller coaster at Huntington's Camden Park, opened in 1958, is West Virginia's oldest and largest?

Big Dipper still runs its original Century Flyer cars, headlights and all, and American Coaster Enthusiasts named it a Coaster Landmark in 2019.

Which Huntington green space, opened in 1913, has a rose garden of more than 3,500 plants?

Ritter Park is named for lumberman Charles Ritter, who donated land for it, and its stone-walled rose garden is a favourite setting for weddings.

Which modernist architect, with The Architects Collaborative, designed the enlargement of Huntington's Museum of Art?

Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, added an auditorium, an art library, new galleries and a studio building, and the museum's visiting artist programme bears his name.

Which open-air Appalachian village museum in Huntington was named West Virginia's first Smithsonian affiliate?

Heritage Farm grew out of the farmhouse on the edge of town that Mike and Henriella Perry moved to in 1973, and it later featured in an episode of American Pickers.

Which Huntington shopping centre finally filled the Superblock, cleared for urban renewal in 1970?

Pullman Square opened in 2004, more than thirty years after four downtown blocks were demolished and a string of redevelopment plans fell through.

Old Central City, one of Huntington's smaller business districts, is well known for shops selling what?

Antiques are the draw in Old Central City, which has the Huntington Children's Museum on one side and Safety Town, a miniature town teaching road safety, on the other.

Which Amtrak train, running between New York City and Chicago, calls at the station in Huntington?

Cardinal became the train's name in 1977 because the cardinal was the state bird of all six states it ran through.

Which interstate skirts the hills on Huntington's southern edge, with four interchanges serving the city?

I-64 serves Huntington from exits 6 through 15, while US 60, part of the historic Midland Trail, carries traffic through downtown.

Besides the West Virginia city, Collis P. Huntington developed a major shipyard in which port on Hampton Roads?

Newport News took shape after he ran his railway to coal piers there in 1881 and built a shipyard in 1886; the yard now builds the US Navy's aircraft carriers.