Pignon

Pignon Piyon
Municipality
Country	Haiti
Department	Nord
Arrondissement	Saint-Raphaël
Elevation	358 m (1,175 ft)
Population  (7 August 2003)
• Total	29,327

Pignon (Creole: Piyon) is a municipality in the Saint-Raphaël Arrondissement, in the Nord Department of Haiti. It has 29,327 inhabitants.

Facilities

La Ville de Pignon is located at the border of the Central Plateau and North Departments. When France first acquired the western third of the island from Spain, Pignon laid right at the border of French and Spanish territories. It was founded in 1699 by Jean Guillaume de Pignon, one of the first French tradesmen and plantation owners who settled the western portion of Hispaniola after the Treaty of Ryswick with Spain. The vast valleys were suitable for tobacco, sugar cane, coffee, banana, mangoes, cocoa and animal production for export to France and trade with the Spanish neighbors in Hinche. The mountain chain overlooking the valleys provided protection against tropical storms and tornadoes, made the area even more desirable to Guillaume. Later, with over 700 male slaves in different plantations throughout the area, he and his family turned the area into a commercial trading hub of sort. He and his family settled the village, right at the foot of the mountain which bears his name to this day.

Modern day Pignon has an airport (Pignon Airport), which is 3,500 ft long (1,100 m) and unpaved. Service to and from Port-au-Prince provided by Sunrise Airways. the actual first mayor is Wiswick Fidel, and the second mayor is Henri Claude Crepin. During the november 28th, 2010's election, Mr. Hidson Nelson was reelected as the Deputy for Pignon, Lavictoire, and Ranquite for 5 years.

Notable High schools: College de la Grace, College Frederick Marcellin, and Lycee National de Pignon

Primary schools: Ecole Saint Joseph, Ecole Nationale Capois La Mort,Ecole baptiste Conservatrice,and Ecole Baptiste Jerusalem.

Health: Pignon has relatively high quality health care in the nation. Because of Hopital Bienfaisance, which is among the nation's better equipped hospitals with both personnel and technology, the population has a high quality of service in this domain.

Pignon is one of the country's top suppliers for sugarcane and alcohol. There are many and vast plantations of sugarcane. Back in the days, farmers used to make their living by providing syrup and molasses to companies like Welch. Now, planters use their sugarcane to make clarin and sell it to the local market and throughout the nation.