History of Ashland, Kentucky

In the 21st century, city growth has spilled into neighboring areas, technically outside of city-limits, and the industrial economy has shrunk alongside expansions in the services sector.

In 2006, Ashland was home to a sexual assault scandal in which more than a dozen officers were accused of having sex with a detainee while on duty.

The present-day area of Ashland was originally inhabited by Native Americans migrating southeast from Beringia, although their earliest dating remains controversial.

During the Woodland period, the Adena culture left large earthworks downriver at South Shore's Biggs site (c. 800 BC to 0).

Ashland lies between this group and the related but distinct Armstrong culture who lived along the Big Sandy.

While engaged in the process of boiling down salt for farm uses, Deering discovered high grade iron ore deposits on his property.

[8] The company soon hired an engineer to lay out the new town of Ashland, named for Henry Clay's Lexington estate.

Martin Toby Hilton was given the task of laying out the streets; at the time, Ashland was nothing more than a few businesses lining Front Avenue and a few residences scattered along the Ohio River and near the foothills.

In 1854, Levi Hampton, one of the founders of the Kentucky Iron, Coal and Manufacturing Company, suggested that Poage Settlement be renamed to "Ashland".

Lots were sold at public auction in June 1854, and the City of Ashland was incorporated by an act of the Kentucky Legislature in 1856.

[8] Major industrial employers in the first half of the 20th century included the Armco, the Ashland Oil and Refining Company, the C&O Railroad, Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation's Semet Solvay and Mansbach Steel.

When it was completed on October 19, 1923, it featured a continuous rolling method to produce steel sheets, the first of its kind in the nation.

Trying to stem the loss of 2,000 jobs in 10 years, he stated he would help consolidate Ashland and Middletown, Ohio's steel mills together in an effort to improve efficiency.

[8] On April 2, 2004, Governor Ernie Fletcher announced a $40 million tax break that would help fund a vacuum degassing unit and modification to the slab caster, crucial to coke making and steel options.

[9] The Ashland Oil and Refining Company was founded in 1924 and had purchased a small refinery near Catlettsburg that had a 1,000-a-day capacity.

The aftermath of the initiative saw the elimination of the unpopular Ashland and Catlettsburg city stickers and cooperation in the extension of sewer lines into the unincorporated areas of Boyd County.

Largely due to the sewer line expansions, growth was spurred along the US 60 shopping corridor between downtown and Interstate 64.

Those pillars of the city, such as Armco (now known as AK Steel) began reducing their workforce in an effort to stay competitive, and many of the jobs were outsourced to local contractors [citation needed].

CSX, formerly known as Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, operates one of the largest switchyards in the world in nearby Russell and Raceland.

On October 4, 1989, the Ashland Town Center opened with Wal-Mart, Hess's department store, and J.C. Penney, along with 12 speciality shops and a food court.

When the malls were opened, Ashland Town Center was considered to be more convenient, but faced the obstacle of being built on a former wetlands and by non-union labor.

However, as time passed, Ashland Town Center flourished while Cedar Knoll Galleria diminished until, in 2004, Zamias, owners of the mall went bankrupt.

[12][15] In November 2006, four of the nine officers that had denied the polygraph sued Jessica Thomas and eleven Ashland police department and local government officials claiming that they were the target of an "unfair and illegal investigation, intimidation and slander".

[13] The lawsuit was filed in Boyd County Circuit Court after a similar suit that was filed in federal court in Ashland was dismissed in October because they were "not questions of federal law"; that lawsuit included 17 allegations of violations of the officers' constitutional rights.