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.

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. 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. 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. 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 2) French and Indian War veteran's Savage Grant. 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. 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. Location and nomenclature Map of the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area Army Corps of Engineers, Amazon, DirecTV, and the City of Huntington. Mary's Medical Center, CSX Transportation, the U.S. The largest employers are Marshall University, Cabell Huntington Hospital, St. 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. Army Corps of Engineers (Huntington District) the Collis P. The city is the home of Marshall University as well as the Huntington Museum of Art the Mountain Health Arena the U.S. With the exception of the neighborhoods of Westmoreland and Spring Valley, most of the city is in Cabell County. The first identifiable permanent settlement, Holderby's Landing, was founded in 1775 in the Colony of Virginia. 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 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. 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. Also, it is considered a scenic locale in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The city is a vital rail-to-river transfer point for the marine transportation industry. Surrounded by extensive natural resources, the industrial sector is based in coal, oil, chemicals and steel, all of which support Huntington's diversified economy. It is home to the Port of Huntington Tri-State, the second-busiest inland port in the United States. Both the city and metropolitan area declined in population from the 2010 census, a trend that has been ongoing for six decades. After World War II, due to the shutdown of these industries, the city lost nearly 46% of its population, from a peak of 86,353 in 1950 to 54,844 in 1990. During the 1900s, the city was a major hub for manufacturing, transportation, and Industrialization. Its metro area, the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, is the largest in West Virginia, spanning seven counties across three states and having a population of 359,862 at the 2020 census. Huntington is the second-largest city in West Virginia, with a population of 46,842 as of the 2020 census. The county seat of Cabell County, the city is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers. Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S.

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