Beyond hunting in the original fur-trade industry, the first economic activity in Franklin County was manufacturing. Near Huntland, along the creek that now bears his name, Jesse Bean one of the original settlers of the county manufactured firearms. Since 1800, many other forms of production and commerce have developed within the county. For most of its history up through World War II, Franklin County exhibited the typical southern and American pattern of town-and-country economics. Small towns were surrounded by a related countryside of farms. Commercial interests in the towns--cotton gins, brokers, banks, stores, wholesalers--received the products of the countryside and shipped them onward for further processing and eventual sale in other markets. In the other direction, the towns supplied a small list of needed items and some services to their own residential populations and to the surrounding farms. The dominant characteristic of the pattern was agricultural and domestic.
The upheaval in the patterns of American life following 1945 shifted the focus of American life increasingly away from farms toward general commerce, manufacturing, service, and now information industries. To some degree, this process has been reflected in Franklin County. By most visual measures the town-and-country model of the pre-war era seems to prevail. Franklin County's lead impression is of a domestically rural county--many houses scattered among farms with three or four small towns providing basic commercial and service centers for education, grocery, medical, and banking needs. Significant industry and manufacturing have been in the county for a long time, but the pattern of dispersion across the county and the avoidance until recently of industrial parks keeps the casual visitor or even resident from thinking of the county as having an industrial character.
Critical to the county's economic health, for instance, but "invisible" from an business point of view is the presence of the University of the South, historically the largest employer of the county. With a staff of now more than 500 and a payroll measured in millions of dollars, the University has provided more jobs and income in the county than any other business. As an educational institution, the University is not typically viewed in this fashion, but it must be taken into account in understanding the full economic health of the county.
Grist mills and sawmills, quarries and lime plants, the Cowan cement plant, machine shops, wholesale nursery products, and hat, shoe, and garment manufacturing plants have long been presences in the county. More recent additions to the economic base include food processing, carpet production, fiberglass and plastics molding, metal fabrication industries, and a variety of small but highly professional machining and assembly industries. The neighboring AEDC and NASA facilities have brought a critical mass of technical employees into the area and they have been followed by specialized industries oriented to aero-space products. At the same time, the automotive products sector has grown. Some local businesses produce specialty auto trim or detail products while in nearby McMinnville a world-scale tire manufacturing plant is now in operation. The impact of the Nissan truck plant near Nashville at Smyrna is felt throughout the middle Tennessee and upper Alabama region. A direct effect of the Nissan plant at Smyrna is the recent decision of Nissan to construct a major engine assembly facility in Franklin County. This facility is under construction on a large tract located between old Rt. 50 in Decherd and the new Rt. 50 connector road.
The town-and-county perception supported by the visually attractive landscape masks another feature of the economic life of the county. Many people use the attractive neighborhood features of Franklin County as their residential base and commute from here to jobs in Chattanooga, Nashville, McMinnville, Huntsville, Tullahoma and Fayetteville. This commuting is facilitated by the generally good interstate road connections available to the county. The eventual completion of the Rt. 50-64 highway connector to Huntsville and the widening of Rt. 41 to Tullahoma will increase this trend. Although the pattern is not so clearly established here as in other sections of the United States, Franklin County is a kind of "bedroom" community for employers in other areas. Because these employees head off in so many directions from Franklin County's central location, the pattern is not so demonstrative as it is in the case of corridor commuting in larger urban areas.
Finally, we must note the economic but conventionally invisible significance of tourism. Tennessee is nationally a powerful magnet area for tourism and Franklin County benefits from this general pattern as well as from the intrinsic features of the county which are sought out by our visitors. Conventional measures of tourism include gasoline sales, motel accomodations, and restaurant sales, but another effect of this tourism is upon the real estate market. The highly attractive town-and-country character of the county causes many visitors to be attracted to the area for retirement or second-home purchases. The real estate market in the county is active and growing as new people come in and as the old pattern of working farms is broken up.