city, Kanawha county, western West Virginia, U.S. It lies across the Kanawha River from Charleston. South Charleston was founded in 1916, and its development began with the establishment of several chemical companies and a U.S. naval ordnance plant (1917). The ordnance plant was shut down after World War II and sold in 1961 to the Food Machinery Chemical Corporation; the area was more recently converted into an industrial park. The manufacture of chemicals remains the city's economic mainstay, although there is also a plant that produces automobile parts. The graduate college (1958) of Marshall University is in South Charleston. An earthen mound built by the Adena (Adena culture) people, 33 feet (10 metres) high and 550 feet (168 metres) in circumference, and Little Creek Park are within the city limits. Kanawha State Forest lies just to the south. Inc. 1917. Pop. (1990) 13,645; (2000) 13,390.