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I live in the Hohenwald, Tennessee area, in Lewis County, and the area has so much potential. I mean history, beautiful scenery, the Natchez Trace, low crime rate, very low cost of living, you name it, but the biggest downfall to the area is that there no joke ZERO industries in the county that employ fifty or more people. Hohenwald is a small town with a population of about 5000, and Lewis County has a population of about 13000, but the place just seems to get worse and worse as there are no jobs here and there is no entertain here either (no kidding, Walmart is the place to be).
I was just wondering if any of you have any examples or ideas of how a place can keep its small town charm but still have available and thriving jobs and entertainment. This town is dying as the young generations consistently move away and don't come back, and few people are looking to move to a place such as this. We need some help.
I feel that bringing in industry also brings in more people once they find a place thats both piecefull, and has work. Before you know it, it's no longer piecefull nor so cheap to live. Thats why the small towns in DeKalb place a notebook on the counter of stores so locals can sign saying 'no' to new biz.Here, the county decides in favor of the people. The local paper had a write up about it, it read something like this ''if the locals wish to see city lights, they'll drive to see them or take a vacation, but after they see what they wanted to see, they can return to their homes here in Gods country''.
Is anyone listening? This truly is a very friendly, small but potential country town. PLEASE.... Can anyone help me out here or share similiar experiences? The society of today looks too much at the big cities and subdivisions and the small towns are forgot about and told "too bad there just aren't enough people living there for us to care".
What does a small town have to offer? Quiet life, typically lower crime (But not necessarily, hello meth labs).
What doesn't a small town offer? Jobs (and just as important career advancement), entertainment, amenities.
I grew up in a town of 6,700 people. We had a couple big companies in town that employed everybody, then a bunch of smaller companies in a 10-50 employee group. You know who stuck around my hometown from those who graduated high school around my time in the mid 90's? It was the kids who were fine earning $8/hour the rest of their lives who had little to no motivation. Those who wanted more ventured off to college.
Once there they realized that they didn't want to go back to a town that was 1 hour from the nearest interstate. They liked what the mid-sized to large towns offered that the small town just can't. This isn't a new phenomenon. It's been happening for about 45 years now ever since the baby boomers started going off to college in large numbers for the first time back in the mid 60's.
So now who are you stuck with in Small Town USA? The original old timers who just haven't died yet paired with a few generations of unmotivated individuals content living paycheck to paycheck.
I realize I'm painting with a broad brush here. Those small towns do have some motivated individuals, typically the owners of the few industries in the towns. I just don't see how small town life goes back to "the good old days."
My question to you is why should I care about Hohenwald? Why should I uproot my family and invest a bunch of money and start a company in Hohenwald? What is the labor pool like there? What is the size of the market for my goods? My guess is that it's not very attractive.
Would your small town consider that? Lots of tax dollars with some new restaurants, jobs for locals.
Consider local schools? Sports? 4-H? Churches? Summer Camps? Water activities? when trying to attract any new industry.
I grew up in a small town and have lived in many that have grown and thrived and still have kept the small town charm/I'm always known as the newcomer.
Would your small town consider that? Lots of tax dollars with some new restaurants, jobs for locals.
Consider local schools? Sports? 4-H? Churches? Summer Camps? Water activities? when trying to attract any new industry.
I grew up in a small town and have lived in many that have grown and thrived and still have kept the small town charm/I'm always known as the newcomer.
Think outside of the box.
What is the history of your town?
Thanks for putting in some ideas Branch Water. Well our county is a dry county, and the issue has come up several times to allow liquor back into the county which I am in full argeement with, but many small-minded small town people constantly bring up the issue of drunk drivers and such. Even though being as a dry county as we are, we still have several drunkedness problems and I don't think liquor would really make them any worse..... But on the county line we do have two and soon three wineries (Amber Falls and Keg Springs) that grow the grapes in Lewis County but sell it in Maury County that our town seems to be very proud of considering they make the front page of our paper all the time for some new wine-tasting award. Yeah, Crazy I know.
But considering your other ideas, we do have many churches. I think, at one time, Lewis County had 52 churches. But I do not know how that might stimulate our economy.
Also, about our history, the explorer, Merriweather Lewis died mysteriously in our county. The infamous Morman Massacre took place here. And there are several places in our county on the Natchez Trace that are historic. And there are several once was, now ghost towns, spread throughout the county. And in 1980, there was over 60 documented buildings in the county that are older than the civil war.
I hear ya, brother, about “Not much to do in Hohenwald.” My friends thought I’d lost my mind, when I said, “I bought a place in Tennessee” and showed them a satellite view of thousands of acres that looked like solid green. They all said, “Uhhhh….there’s NOTHING there!?!” I said, “That’s the point!”
But 6 months later COVID arrived and I went from being “crazy” to being “a genius.” “You KNEW it was coming!!” was the most heard comment. So, there is a thin line between madness and genius.
To make it a bit funnier…lI was born IN New York City. So, Hohenwald is about a polar opposite as I could get. The people there are SO nice, compared to NYC. BUT, there are some strange things I have observed: Nearly every store in town LOOKS closed 24/7. I actually asked the mayor if there was some town ordinance that you had to have ugly store signs, to give a “ghost town” feel? The biggest attraction in town may be the ELEPHANT SANCTUARY….Yes, they have one, for retired zoo and circus elephants. You would think, “Wow…cool attraction,” except no one is allowed to see the elephants!!! So, it may as well be King Kong living out in the trees. Reportedly, a worked got stomped to death around a decade ago, while feeding an elephant, so they since decided to close up to visitors. You can go into their four-storefront headquarters on Main St and look at photos and a video monitor. Duh!! IMO….a HUGE loss in town promotion.
Hohenwald used to be booming, with a canning factory and other industry and was on the main train line. When the trains were re-routed, the factories lost their shipping and jobs and the town shrank.
Before I bought my place, I ran the town demographics. The town in like 98% White but has high property crime. So, I immediately figured….drugs. Turns out maybe the biggest industry in town is a low-key number of drug rehab houses and buildings. So, it seems there is a good amount of state or federal funds supporting the town, with a LOT of what appears to be younger teens-20s recovering drug addicts. I’m assuming that is oartially the reason for high property crime rates. So, I made sure to buy a place as far from that as I could…I am actually the last house in the county, some 10 miles from all the rehab houses. But the third year I was there, I caught some clown in a pickup truck on my security cams, IN my yard scoping my place out. My house is VERY off the road, over 1,000 feet down a long dirt driveway through forest. So, this guy was obviously up to no good. I come from a family of law enforcement and was able to ID the guy within an hour and have the local town cops and sheriffs at his door, warning him to never return to my place. Turned out he is a known drug guy, who owns several rentals in town he inherited, which are used for drugs. The police all know him from arrests and jail-time. So, the town may appear “quiet” but there IS a hidden undercurrent that affects many small towns. It IS still a nice place by comparison but you need to stay alert. All my nearby neighbors look out for each other.
That said….SOME NEW INDUSTRY to bring more traffic and activity to town might help. There IS a small dirt racetrack in town, plus a small airport. Maybe some sort of activities using those? There IS a “coffee shop” with a larg metal building attached. It was opened when I bought my place and they had been doing concerts and activities…but COVID did them in and it changed ownership. Now they only do food, no activities. There is an old theatre on Main Street that is mostly closed and seems to be only rented for occasional banquets.
I’ve also been racking my brain over what business might succeed in town? There are a LOT of fast food places that do well. There IS a public golf course, plus three local wineries nearby. Plus an unusual number if banks in town. So…there IS money in the area. Also a LOT of churches. I used to do marketing for some big companies, so I can usually spot opportunities..but so far, I haven’t figured it out. I found an old national magazine, with a cover story on Hohenwald from the early ‘80s, calling it the national spot for “junk shops” (used second-hand thrift stores.” There ARE a few in town but not exactly something to bring in thousands of people. I heard that even a topless bar failed. There are only one or two places to buy a drink in town…one is a pool hall and the other also with pool tables, attached to a restaurant. There are several local eateries that survive but do not seem to be thriving.
Wish I could be of more help…..But I DO like the place. The only places with a crowd are Walmart, the fast food places and all the drug rehabs. Not too sure where those intersect for a business model to draw new people to town?
Hohenwald is German for High Forrest. It sounds like a small attractive town I might have encountered driving through the Black Forrest or Swabian Alps when I lived over there.
BIgtr and MC2 brought up points that's I've spent time thinking about.
I long to move to a small town. I'm even researching trying to get a virtual job or finding a way to get some alternative income or a cheaper housing option to need less income. We want to slow down get away from the oppressive stress and anxiety about working 60 hours a week for a corporation always stressed out, and constantly running all over the place all the time. It's exhausting
I really want to move to a small quiet town. However my biggest fear is being shunned or never accepted being an outsider "not from around here" some really good pointa have been brought up that there is a disproportionate amount of the population that are old timers who dont want anything changing and younger unmotivated people. I know that's not true of everyone obviously but it is a perception and the theory makes sense. I wouldn't want to move in and have the old timers mad that I'm an outsider from up north and the druggies thinks I must be rich and have good stuff to steal.
and the petty property crime, meth drugs. Being the new family in town from out of state in a small town would probably attract a lot of attention including bad attention from people who think you might have something they want.
So this is a very interesting conversation that I want to follow along.
Find something that makes your town unique or fits a niche.
Here are a few examples of the top of my head:
If you want to keep your town dark, advertise it as a dark sky area and try to attract people looking for dark sky night viewing. There are some of these locations out west but not many east. Try to setup a remote park space for night time astrophotography.
Become the middle Tennessee mountain (trail) bike destination. Build some mountain bike trails of varying terrain.
Just 2 ideas that wouldn't need a ton of development and can take advantage of your remote location and wouldn't change the character of the town.
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The local paper had a write up about it, it read something like this ''if the locals wish to see city lights, they'll drive to see them or take a vacation, but after they see what they wanted to see, they can return to their homes here in Gods country''. 
Liquor by the drink
