In the late 1700s, an abundance of flat, fertile farmland helped draw the first European-American settlers to what would become southwestern Kentucky. Today agriculture remains a key part of life in the region, but farming has been joined by food processing, manufacturing, military, and recreation sectors that are helping to fuel economic development and population growth.
A recent report from the Kentucky State Data Center lists three southwestern communities among the top-10 fastest growing places in the commonwealth: Elkton (#3), Cadiz (#6), and Kuttawa (#7). Even larger communities like Hopkinsville and Madisonville are thriving.
“There’s a lot to be said for living in a small town,” says Elizabeth Griffith Mudd, president of Kentucky Lake Economic Development. “The quality of life is high, the crime is low, it’s safe.”
“There’s a hospitality that’s in the DNA of the people,” says Carter Hendricks, a former mayor of Hopkinsville who is now executive director of the Southwestern Kentucky Economic Development Council. “That’s the magic to this region – you’re not just one of us, you’re part of family.”
The region overall boasts a population of about 300,000 people, according to Kentucky Cornerstone, a group of local economic development officials from 13 counties in the area. Mudd says while the different agencies are competitive with each other, they’ve also learned the benefits of consulting with and collaborating with one another.
“We’ve all realized we have a lot of resources on our own, but we can be stronger if we work together in order to market the entire western Kentucky region,” she says.
That regional approach gives southwestern Kentucky a significant advantage over other parts of the country, says Madisonville Mayor Kevin Cotton. That’s been a boon for his community, which has a population of about 19,000.
“By the end of this year, we will have seen or announced almost $500 million in investments into our community over the past five years,” says Cotton. “That’s a significant amount of change in a community.”
But there have been struggles as well. Cotton says Hopkins County lost 700 homes during the December 2021 tornado outbreak. He says it will take years for the community to recover from such a significant loss in housing stock.
Neighboring Hopkinsville, with a population of about 31,000, has also seen significant development in recent years, according to Jennifer Brown, editor and publisher of the Hoptown Chronicle. She says 25 new businesses have located in the city’s downtown in the past decade alone. She attributes some of the growth to revitalization work on the historic Alhambra Theatre and Pennyroyal Area Museum.
Elizabeth McCoy, president and CEO of locally based Planter's Bank, also credits financial incentives offered to restore older downtown properties. She says the bank has renovated four blocks of Hopkinsville’s Main Street, and she and her husband have rehabbed a property for their own use.
“We’ve put our money where our mouth is and we hope other people will follow us,” says McCoy. “We live here because we choose to, not because we have to.”
The Evolution of Farming in the Region
Agriculture has been foundational for the region, with generations of farmers growing grains, livestock, and tobacco. Once known for the infamous Black Patch War in which early 20th century tobacco farmers battled the monopolistic American Tobacco Company for better prices, the area is now home to the top three wheat producing counties in Kentucky.
“We can’t believe how important agriculture is today,” says Wayne Hunt, chairman and CEO of H&R Agri-Power, a farm equipment dealership that started in Hopkinsville and now has locations in six states. “You eat and sleep and breathe agriculture.”
All that local grain has brought a proliferation of milling operations and spin-off businesses. Now, more than two-thirds of all the wheat grown in Kentucky is processed in Hopkinsville, according to Hunt. That flour goes into a variety of popular products, including Ghirardelli brownie mix, Cracker Barrel biscuit mix, and fresh biscuits sold in all McDonald’s restaurants east of the Mississippi River.
All of those products have led Hopkinsville leaders to dub the city “the batter capitol of the world.”
“We do have this vertically integrated system that literally allows the wheat, the corn, the grain to be grown here, processed here, and manufactured into food products that we all love and enjoy,” says Hendricks. “We just produce the best and we end up having the best-tasting products as a result of it.”
The Master Settlement Agreement that ended the federal tobacco program pumped more than $700 million into the local agricultural economy, according to Hunt. That brought a wave of diversification to farming operations, including the rise of large-scale poultry operations. The result, Hunt says, is that average cash incomes on farms have risen from $3.4 billion to $8.1 billion.
The Impact of Fort Campbell and Military Veterans
When Camp Campbell opened just outside of Hopkinsville in 1942, it trained armored and infantry divisions for World War II. Today, Fort Campbell, which spans the Kentucky-Tennessee border, is home to some 30,000 soldiers and is the headquarters of the famed 101st Airborne Division. Brown says the base and the military personnel who have passed through there over eight decades have had a profound effect on the area.
“Fort Campbell is responsible for making this a very interesting place to live,” says Brown. “Hopkinsville is among the most racially diverse communities in Kentucky.”
It’s not just the soldiers who are on active duty there. Hendricks says Fort Campbell is the final stop for many men and women who are about the leave the service. About 500 soldiers are discharged each month, he says, and more than half of them say they want to continue to live in the area.
“We think that’s a testament to this region, why it has such a great quality of life that soldiers want... to get out of the Army at Fort Campbell and stay in western Kentucky,” says Hendricks.
The base is also the largest employer in Christian County, and it pumps some $5 billion into the regional economy each year. That impact is especially felt in the local workforce, where those soldiers and veterans as well as their spouses and family members represent a “secret weapon,” as Hendricks describes them. They are experienced, dependable, adaptable, and have good leadership and communications skills – all traits that employers prize.
But they may need some retraining to fit into the civilian workforce. That’s where Hopkinsville Community College helps with a career skills program that assists Fort Campbell personnel transitioning out of the service. HCC President and CEO Alissa Young says the soldiers about the leave the Army can take courses in welding, industrial maintenance, electronics, commercial driving, and other areas. In addition to regular associate degree programs, Young says HCC also offers 100 short-term certificate programs that can prepare students for in-demand jobs.
“People can come and in a short period of time really change their income and thus the trajectory of their lives,” says Young.
Competing with the Cross-Border Rival
Moving the region into the future will require more work and more diversification, say local officials.
“I would like to see more development of small business, encouragement of that entrepreneurial small business,” says state Rep. Jason Petrie (R-Elkton), who is chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. “We have some and they are good... but I’d really like to see that bulk up.”
State policies can help facilitate development in the region. But Petrie says being at least three hours away from Frankfort makes it hard for local civic and business leaders to interact with lawmakers. Plus, he says people here get as much news about Tennessee, southern Indiana, or Missouri as they do about Kentucky.
One factor that influences where people want to live or locate a business is income taxes. Kentucky’s tax rate has dropped from 6 percent down to 4 percent and could be going down to 3.5 percent, according to Petrie. But neighboring Tennessee has no personal income tax.
“The closer we get to 0 (percent), the more competitive we become,” says Hendricks.
For some, a lower Kentucky rate can’t come fast enough. Of the 180 employees at Planter’s Bank, McCoy says 70 live in Tennessee, and a dozen more want to move there to avoid paying Kentucky’s income tax.
“There is at least a psychological issue with the state income tax that is a significant barrier to overcome,” says McCoy.
But Kentucky does beat Tennessee in one area of taxation. Kentucky has a 6 percent sales tax, while Tennesseans pay a state sales tax of 7 percent, and local cities and counties there can add their own sales taxes on top of that. Petrie says western Kentucky also has better infrastructure than Tennessee as well as cheaper land prices, and a lower population density.
“We are expanding into an area that doesn’t have as much population load, which means we’re expanding the future, whereas Tennessee is always trying to catch up,” says Petrie.
As for future growth on the Kentucky side of the border, Mudd says local officials need to continue to foster entrepreneurship, reinvigorate their downtowns, and improve quality of life factors. She also says it’s as important to help existing businesses thrive and grow as it is to lure new businesses into the region. Hendricks and Petrie add that the work of economic developers is never done because the playing field and competition are always changing.
“You never arrive, you’re always adjusting,” says Petrie.” That’s what makes it always interesting – you’re never finished.”
