Business Trailblazers Prosper Here
Huntington County has long been a crossroads for commerce, transportation and technology. In the late 1700s, European explorers traded with the Miami Indians at areas such as the Forks of the Wabash, at what is now the intersection of US-24 and SR-9 near of the city of Huntington.
Also, the Forks of the Wabash sat at the west end of an important transportation corridor of the time. Called the “Great Portage,” this stretch of ground was the shortest overland link connecting navigable waterways between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.
In fact, largely due to tolls collected from those who traversed the Great Portage, the chief of the Miami Indians was said to be the wealthiest Native American when he died in 1841. His estate was valued at $20 million in today’s dollars.
In the early 1800s, the path of this key travel link was upgraded to the “high-tech” transportation mode of the time—the Wabash and Erie Canal. The first section of the canal, between Fort Wayne and Huntington, was completed in 1835. It proved to be a magnet for development and trade. Between 1835 and 1850, the population of canal-bordering counties increased ten-fold.
The canal hit its peak as an artery for goods and passengers in the 1850s. Yet the canal’s demise was already underway, thanks to an even better technology: railroads. In fact, the first railroad train arrived in Huntington in 1855. A descendant of the line, the Norfolk and Southern, still passes through the city. |
