Huntsville is a city in Maison County in the U.S. state of Alabama, and the county seat of Madison County. Huntsville is the largest city in northern Alabama in a region of a half-million people, with the city proper having 168,132 residents (2006 estimate). Started with a single cabin in 1805, the city was incorporated six years later as Twickenham. However, it was renamed "Huntsville" (after first settler John Hunt) during the War of 1812, and has grown across nearby hills and along the Tennessee River, adding textile mills, then munitions factories, to become a major city, hosting the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal.