"Well, we have it made here," says Jay Ray Hobbs.

You can take his word for it. Hobbs has lived in Obion County his whole life. Ask him where he grew up, and he can point to it from the house he lives in now. He farms 2,500 acres of Obion County land in corn, beans and wheat. And he's a 30-year retired veteran of the school board.

Now his son Lee Jay is back on the farm and making management decisions in business with his dad.

"I told him it's gonna be hard," says Jay Ray. "But he knows that. He knows how he was brought up."

"I always knew I'd come back here after college," says his son.

That kind of sentiment wouldn't surprise anyone in Obion County. There are lots of reasons to come back, live, stay and farm. The economy is incredibly robust, particularly for a rural county where sprawl isn't an issue and population growth is slow or even non-existent. The relationship between manufacturing and farming forms the basis for that strong economy.

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"Agriculture and industry in this county go hand in hand," says Extension agent Tim Smith. That's an understatement really. Tyson employs 1,100 people at its Obion County plant and uses local farm product. Many of the tires manufactured by Goodyear in the county end up on farm equipment.

A new ethanol plant in the county owned by 33 farmers—most of them from western Tennessee—will use 36 million bushels of corn each year and produce 100 million gallons of ethanol when it comes online this year, making it the largest plant by output that far south.

Obion County produces more corn than any county in Tennessee at 12 million bushels. "We won't get all of that," says James K. Patterson, CEO of Ethanol Grain Processors, but the exceptional rail access in the county will keep the corn pipeline full. "For rural northwest Tennessee, the economic impact of this plant is going to be enormous," says Patterson.

The county is looking to become a cultural center with the just-announced 50-acre Discovery Park of America. The $100 million project will feature a natural history museum, gardens, convention and tourism center when it opens in two years.

It's not all work in Obion County though. Reelfoot Lake forms the county's western border. Wildlife lovers here can watch for one of the largest wintering populations of eagles in America. And the fishing and duck hunting are legendary.

Judging from the walls in his trophy room, resident Paul Albright knows all about the hunting here. But he also knows about what makes Obion County special. He and his wife, Kellye, grew up here, and like his friend Lee Jay Hobbs, he came back here after college to farm and raise a family.

He's impressed with the new, modern schools—"you'd have to look far and wide to find better ones"—and his two daughters enjoy the educational opportunities and reap the benefits of being farm kids too.

At 34, he's a county commissioner and a corn, soybean, wheat and cattle farmer along with his father and grandfather. "I can safely say I know everybody that farms in Obion County," he says. "We're not just neighbors, we're friends."

Maybe that's why, five generations after his great-great grandfather first worked the land here, it's still home—for Albright and thousands of others who just can't stay away. "All these people we went to school with, they wanted to move to the big city," he says. "But they keep coming back."

FEATURED PROPERTIES IN THIS COUNTY FROM THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER REAL ESTATE DATABASE>>

More info on the web:
Cooperative Extension, Obion County
obion.tennessee.edu

Obion County Schools
www.obioncountyschools.com

Joint Economic Development Council
www.obioncounty.org