Editing Grainger County, Tennessee (section)

==Economy==

===Top employers===
According to a data profile produced by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development in 2018,<ref name="tnecd">{{cite web |title=Grainger County: County Profile Tool |url=https://tnecd.com/counties/grainger/ |website=Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development |publisher=[[Tennessee|State of Tennessee]] |access-date=September 7, 2020 |date=2018 }}</ref> the top employers in the county are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! #
! Employer
! # of Employees
|-
|1
|Grainger County School District
|500
|-
|2
|[[Clayton Homes]] ([[Bean Station, Tennessee|Bean Station]])
|350
|-
|3
|Grainger County
|200
|-
|4
|Clayton Homes ([[Rutledge, Tennessee|Rutledge]])
|200
|-
|5
|Sexton Furniture Manufacturing LLC
|150
|}

===Agriculture===
Grainger County is acknowledged as a predominately [[Rural area|rural]] and [[exurb]]an county of the [[Knoxville metropolitan area|Greater Knoxville]] region.<ref name="easttnruralhomeless">{{cite web |title=Using the Social Ecological Model to examine how homelessness is defined and managed in rural East Tennessee |url=https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/rural-homelessness-report_-nhchcpublication.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/rural-homelessness-report_-nhchcpublication.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |website=National Health Care for the Homeless Council |access-date=November 29, 2020 |date=April 2016 |quote="Rural areas are usually characterized by higher levels of economic disadvantage in terms of median income, percentage of residents living below the poverty level, and percentage of residents with a low education level. They often have higher levels of home ownership as opposed to multiple rental units. Union, Grainger, and Claiborne County reflect these traditional, rural characteristics."}}</ref><ref name="exurban">{{cite web |title=The United States: By Rural, Urban and Exurban Counties |url=https://dailyyonder.com/united-states-rural-urban-and-exurban-counties/2009/03/17/ |website=The Daily Yonder |access-date=December 6, 2020 |date=March 17, 2009}}</ref>  [[Agriculture]] has accounted for a large portion of the county economy throughout history due to the county's soil containing a mass amount of rich nutrients beneficial to select crops of choice.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bertone|first=Rachel|url=https://www.farmflavor.com/tennessee/why-grainger-county-tennessee-tomatoes-are-so-tasty/|title=Why Grainger County, Tennessee, Tomatoes Are So Tasty|date=March 13, 2017|work=Farm Flavor|access-date=March 14, 2020}}</ref> The [[tomato]] has been the major crop, though [[cattle]] raising continues to important gains. Grainger County tomatoes have in recent decades become nationally and internationally renowned.<ref name="Collins"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=DeVoe|first=Emily|date=August 6, 2020|title=WHY THE TOMATOES GROWN IN THIS RURAL TENNESSEE COUNTY ATTRACT PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD|work=[[WBIR-TV]]|url=https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/five-at-four/why-the-tomatoes-grown-in-this-rural-tenn-county-attract-people-from-all-over-the-world/51-86107d19-ea78-4f5e-81f8-c8b0b3e41d36|access-date=August 8, 2020}}</ref>

In 2018, Grainger County was reported to have over 650 greenhouses, 923 farms producing 500 acres of field vegetables, and nearly 90,000 acres of farmland.<ref name="extension">{{cite web |title=Agriculture |url=https://extension.tennessee.edu/Grainger/Pages/Agriculture.aspx |website=Grainger County Extension Institute of Agriculture |publisher=[[University of Tennessee]] |access-date=August 14, 2020}}</ref>

The county celebrates the tomato in an annual [[festival]] since 1992. Around thirty-thousand festival-goers across the state of Tennessee and the United States gather to witness events about the county's heritage and its significant agricultural impact across the state of Tennessee, enjoy live music performances, purchase local produce and handmade gifts, and take part in arts and crafts events. The Grainger County Tomato Festival takes place during the final weekend in July.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.graingercountytomatofestival.com|title=Grainger County Tomato Festival TN.|website=Grainger County Tomato Festival TN.|access-date=November 15, 2017}}</ref>

===Real estate===
Residential construction has been increasing in the county, with most occurring near the Cherokee Lake shoreline, the Bean Station area and the Blaine area.<ref name="Collins"/><ref name="tacir">{{cite web |title=Grainger County Growth Plan |url=http://attachment.tacir.tn.gov/Growth/GrowthPlans/Grainger.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://attachment.tacir.tn.gov/Growth/GrowthPlans/Grainger.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |website=Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations |access-date=August 1, 2020 |date=July 10, 2000 }}</ref> With a cost of living around $2,600, and an average housing cost of $420 monthly, it is one of the least expensive counties in Tennessee.<ref name="expense">{{cite web |last1=Comen |first1=Evan |title=Least Expensive Place To Live In Every State |url=https://247wallst.com/special-report/2020/07/24/least-expensive-place-to-live-in-every-state/10/ |website=24/7 Wall Street |access-date=July 30, 2020 |date=July 24, 2020 }}</ref> In 2017, the median value of property in the county was $110,600, compared to $229,700 nationally.<ref name="datausa">{{cite web |title=Grainger County, TN |url=https://datausa.io/profile/geo/grainger-county-tn/#housing |website=Data USA |access-date=July 30, 2020}}</ref>

===Tourism and leisure===
[[File:Cherokee Reservoir - German Creek - Bean Station, TN.jpg|left|thumb|[[Cherokee Lake]] near [[Bean Station, Tennessee|Bean Station]]]]

By the late 19th century, a tourism industry had flourished around the [[mineral springs]] flowing from the Clinch Mountain range. The Tate Springs Resort complex located in the Bean Station region of the county, provided accommodations for tourists and business travelers alike until the [[Great Depression]]. It included mineral baths and waters, an enormous resort hotel, a swimming pool and bathhouse, a springhouse constructed as a gazebo, private cabins, and a golf course. After the Great Depression, the resort had closed and the property was given to local authorities. A children's home and school occupied the space of the hotel and cabins, until a major fire destroyed the entire hotel in the 1960s. Today, the [[Tate Springs Springhouse]], the bathhouse, and several cabins are what remains of the complex.<ref name="Collins"/>

Since the 1940s, the county's tourism and recreational industry nonetheless sparked once again after the Tennessee Valley Authority's creation of Cherokee and Norris Lake in the southern and northern parts of the county respectively. Fishing, hiking, hunting, camping, golf, boating, water sports, and development of lakefront property seek to continue contributing to the county's economy.<ref name="Collins"/>

===Industry and commerce===
[[File:Grainger County Industrial Park.jpg|thumb|Grainger County Industrial Park, located between Rutledge and Bean Station]]
In the county's early years, small businesses represented the secondary source of economic development. [[Gristmill]]s, [[Hatmaking|hatters]], [[saddle]] makers, [[tailor]]s, [[Practice of law|lawyers]], and [[dry goods]] merchants supplied the many necessities for the county's isolated and spread-out agricultural communities.<ref name="Collins"/>

The Shields family operated Holston Paper Mill, one of the earliest industries in the county. The Knoxville and Bristol Railroad, also known as the Peavine Railroad, ran through the Richland Creek Valley from Bean Station to Blaine. The tracks would later succumb to [[flood]]ing after the damming of the Richland Valley by the TVA in the 1940s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carruthers|first=Amelia|date=1943|title=Bean Station|journal=National History Magazine|volume=77|pages=31–35}}</ref>

Clinchdale Lumber Company, a locally owned business, logged a significant portion of the county's timber in the early part of the 20th century. Afterwards, this [[Deforestation|timbering]] movement gave way to [[knitting]] mills and [[zinc mining]] in the Clinch River Valley in the northern part of the county.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Coffey|first=Ken|date=June 10, 2020|title=Polly Cole: The Thorn Hill Prospector|work=Grainger Today|url=https://www.graingertoday.com/living/polly-cole-the-thorn-hill-prospector/article_01008544-aac6-11ea-87e7-27382e3bbe47.html|access-date=June 17, 2020}}</ref> Around the late 20th century, [[Tennessee marble]] was [[Quarry|quarried]] in the Thorn Hill region of Grainger County.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=University of Tennessee|first=Department of Geological Sciences|date=1985|title=The geological history of the Thorn Hill Paleozoic section (Cambrian-Mississippian)|journal=Se-Gsa 1985|pages=128}}</ref>

=== Economic hardship ===
Unlike neighboring counties such as Jefferson, Hamblen, and Knox, Grainger County does not have county-wide [[Zoning|zoning ordinances]],<ref name="landuse"/> which has led to the [[Urban sprawl|uncontrolled and controversial development]] of RV campgrounds in predominately residential areas.<ref name="landuse">{{cite news |last1=Wolfe |first1=Tracey |title=Land use regulations must be considered |url=https://www.graingertoday.com/opinion/land-use-regulations-must-be-considered/article_4873bd84-2937-11eb-b6a0-ef6369bde27f.html |access-date=December 6, 2020 |work=Grainger Today |date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206190548/https://www.graingertoday.com/opinion/land-use-regulations-must-be-considered/article_4873bd84-2937-11eb-b6a0-ef6369bde27f.html |archive-date=December 6, 2020}}</ref><ref name="germancreek">{{cite news |last1=Wolfe |first1=Tracey |title=German Creek homeowners fighting commercial development |url=https://www.graingertoday.com/news/german-creek-homeowners-fighting-commercial-development/article_e2c195b8-2938-11eb-94c6-af5296718d6a.html |access-date=December 6, 2020 |work=Grainger Today |date=November 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206190626/https://www.graingertoday.com/news/german-creek-homeowners-fighting-commercial-development/article_e2c195b8-2938-11eb-94c6-af5296718d6a.html |archive-date=December 6, 2020}}</ref>

In 2010, it was reported that nearly two-thirds of Grainger County residents [[commuting|commute]] to cities in surrounding counties such as [[Morristown, Tennessee|Morristown]] and [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]] for work.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Grainger County 2010 Census Report|url=http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/Grainger-Count-2010-Census-Report.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/Grainger-Count-2010-Census-Report.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|last=East Tennessee Development District|date=April 1, 2012|website=ETDD.org|access-date=May 8, 2020}}</ref> With this, Grainger County was reported as one of five counties in the East Tennessee Development District region experiencing significant [[rural flight|out-migration]] of young college-educated adults leaving Grainger County for [[Urban area|urban economic hubs]] such as [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]] and [[Morristown, Tennessee|Morristown]],<ref name="ceds2019">{{Cite journal|date=January 14, 2020|title=2019 Annual Report|url=http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-Annual-CED-Report_Submitted.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-Annual-CED-Report_Submitted.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|journal=Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy|via=East Tennessee Development District}}</ref> due to the lack of employment opportunities in the county.<ref name="ceds2020">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=December 2020|title=2020 Annual Report: Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy|url=http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-CEDS-Report.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.etdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-CEDS-Report.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|access-date=January 2, 2020|website=East Tennessee Development District}}</ref>

In the fiscal year 2020, Grainger County was recognized as one of twenty-four counties in the state of Tennessee at risk of becoming economically distressed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tn.gov/transparenttn/open-ecd/openecd/tnecd-performance-metrics/openecd-long-term-objectives-quick-stats/distressed-counties.html|title=Distressed Counties|last=State of Tennessee|first=Transparent Tennessee|website=TN.gov|access-date=March 16, 2020}}</ref>