Huntsville Alabama History & Facts

Huntsville is a city in Madison County and Limestone County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in the state.

Huntsville was founded within the Mississippi Territory in 1805 and became an incorporated town in 1811. When Alabama was admitted as a state in 1819, Huntsville was designated for a year as the first capital, before that was moved to more central settlements. The city developed across nearby hills north of the Tennessee River, adding textile mills in the late nineteenth century.

Its major growth has taken place since World War II. During the war, the Army established Redstone Arsenal near here with a chemical weapons plant, and nearby related facilities. After the war, additional research was conducted at Redstone Arsenal on rockets, followed by adaptations to use them for space exploration. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command, and most recently the FBI’s operational support headquarters all came to be located at nearby Redstone Arsenal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Huntsville to its "America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010" list.

The city's population is 215,006 as of the 2020 census, making it Alabama's most populous city. Birmingham had been the largest since the growth of its coal and steel industries earlier in the 20th century. Huntsville is the largest city in the five-county Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area. The Huntsville metropolitan area's population was 491,723 as of 2020, making it the second most populous metropolitan area in the state after the Birmingham metropolitan area.

For thousands of years, cultures of indigenous peoples lived in this area, particularly along the river. The historic Muskogee-speaking peoples were the tribes who encountered early European explorers and traders.

The Chickasaw traditionally claim to have settled in this area around 1300 after coming east across the Mississippi. They were bordered on the west by the Choctaw, another Muskogee-speaking tribe. To the east was territory of the Cherokee, who spoke an Iroquoian language and may have migrated in ancient times from south of the Great Lakes, where several Iroquoian tribes are based, such as the Five Nations of the Iroquois League. European settlers and traders carried new infectious diseases, which caused high mortality in the tribes. In addition, the three tribes competed over land and resources.

Together with settlement pressures after the United States gained independence, this area had become largely empty of indigenous peoples by the turn of the 19th century. Revolutionary War veteran John Hunt was a pioneer in 1805 on land around the Big Spring. The US negotiated an 1805 treaty with the Chickasaw and an 1806 treaty with the Cherokee who ceded their claims to land to the federal government.

The city has a total area of 220.9 square miles (572.0 km2), of which 219.3 square miles (568.1 km2) are land and 1.5 square miles (3.9 km2), or 0.68%, are water. Huntsville has grown through recent annexations west into Limestone County, a total of 21.5 square miles (56 km2) (13,885 acres (5,619 ha)) in the early 2000s.

Situated in the Tennessee River valley, Huntsville is partially surrounded by several plateaus and large hills. These plateaus are associated with the Cumberland Plateau, and are locally called "mountains". Monte Sano Mountain (Spanish for "Mountain of Health") is the most notable and is east of the city, along with Round Top (Burritt), Chapman, Huntsville, and Green mountains. Others are Wade Mountain to the north, Rainbow Mountain to the west, and Weeden and Madkin mountains on the Redstone Arsenal property in the south. Brindley Mountain is visible in the south across the Tennessee River.

Famous Peoples From Huntsville Alabama

Kathryn Felicia Day

(born June 28, 1979) is an American actress, writer, and web series creator. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild (2007–2013), a show loosely based on her life as a gamer. She also wrote and starred in the Dragon Age web series Dragon Age: Redemption (2011). She is a founder of the online media company Geek & Sundry, best known for hosting the show Critical Role between 2015 and 2019. Day was a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television beginning December 2009 until the end of July 2012.

On television, Day has played Vi in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2003) and Dr. Holly Marten in Eureka (2011), and had a recurring role as Charlie Bradbury on Supernatural (2012–2015, 2018–2020). She has also acted in movies such as Bring It On Again (2004), as well as the Internet musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008). In April 2017, she began appearing as Kinga Forrester in Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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