More Than Just a Road: I-165 Connects Communities

By Emma Ford

Since its construction nearly 80 years ago, Interstate 165 has connected the greater Bowling Green area to small, rural–and, in the past decade, fast-growing–towns like Hartford and Beaver Dam. At the turn of the Millennium, Beaver Dam–like many small Kentucky towns–was facing a declining population rate of -1.33% annually with about 3,400 residents. But, as Bowling Green has rapidly grown in the past few decades, this has caused changes on all fronts to the small communities that are on the outskirts of the region. Today, Beaver Dam has more than 5,000 residents, with the greater Ohio County area’s population crossing the 30,000 threshold in 2042.

The rapid growth of the Bowling Green area–Warren County alone has grown by more than a City of Bowling Green in population in the past 25 years–has caused hundreds of new businesses to sprout and existing businesses to expand. Early in that growth, the resulting labor shortage led many local employers to incentivize their employees to live along I-165, and even to establish satellite offices in places like Beaver Dam or Hartford, all meant to encourage more youth from the region to stay and to attract more folks to move to the area outside Bowling Green itself. 

As more people in Beaver Dam have sought job opportunities in Bowling Green, I-165 expanded to 3 lanes in each direction in 2041. In addition to the added lanes, another product of these workers commuting to Bowling Green is that businesses themselves are now offering people that live in places like Beaver Dam and Hartford transportation through automated trams funded by the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. 

 “A quarter of a century ago, there were perhaps around 100 Beaver Dam area residents that drove daily to Bowling Green to work,” said Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce President Lam Htoo. “Now, between 500 and 600 Beaver Dam residents alone are making this daily commute, which we are hoping our efforts are making more efficient, more safe, and more productive.” 

The affordable housing cost Beaver Dam offers compared to those in Bowling Green and other parts of the region continues to be one of the driving forces in the small city’ growth. While housing costs in Ohio County increased just under 5% over the previous year, Ohio County’s median housing cost remains well under the region’s average. 

“Ohio County has long had a first class school system and a lot of the amenities that people are looking for in that small hometown life,” said Ohio County Economic Development Alliance (OCEDA) Executive Director Diana Callahan. “This includes parks, walkable communities, restaurants, and entertainment. We have a community that just feels like home to folks who want a little less hustle and bustle, with lots to do locally, but it is only a short drive from Bowling Green and the greater Nashville area.”

The automated tram line along I-165, completed in 2046, was conducted as a partnership between the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce and economic development entities in Ohio County and neighboring Butler County. Callahan said this provides a host of new opportunities for local residents.

“Living in a smaller community like Beaver Dam or Hartford, you get the best of both worlds,” she said.

Indeed, as Bowling Green’s population has expanded, people have been becoming increasingly more worried about the standard cost of living in Bowling Green. Looking back 50 years ago, Bowling Green was seen by many as a small college town that was growing slowly but surely. 

However, as technology has ameliorated and the greater Bowling Green area has transformed the region, more people employed in Warren County are choosing communities like Beaver Dam and Hartford–communities they likely first discovered through in-region tourism. 

For instance, Beaver Dam is home to one of Western Kentucky's most significant outdoor music venues.  Long known as "The Dam" by locals, the 10,000-capacity amphitheater has hosted a number of the biggest artists across all music genres and live performances. The amphitheater draws more than 120,000 people into the city each year during the summer concert season. 

 Another longstanding draw for Ohio County is the Rosine Barn. Rosine, Ky., has been known as "The Birthplace of Bluegrass Music" for more than a century, as the hometown of Bill Monroe, who created the musical genre. Monroe is buried here, and his gravesite attracts a large number of visitors, almost none of whom ever saw him perform live, considering Monroe died more than a half century ago. The Rosine Barn was established in the early 1990s as a community-oriented music venue close to Bill Monroe’s home. It started out as more of a band jam session for locals to share their love of Bluegrass. 

Over the decades, the Rosine Barn has cultivated a vast community of people who come from all sorts of places to listen to live, authentic music. One of the co-owners of the Rosine Barn, Tara Ward, says that, each week,  the Barn hosts attendees from multiple countries, with at least 75 countries represented in the previous season. Many come to play during open mic sessions, when traditional bluegrass is regularly infused with sounds from other music genres–here in the U.S., and around the world.

Surrounding the Barn are various locally owned restaurants.

“We want to offer authentic country kitchen cooking and a slice of small hometown life alongside high-end amenities for folks looking for music, outdoors activities, and a rural landscape for their stay in the greater Bowling Green area,” Ward said.

 Ohio County is also home to growing distillery powerhouse the Western Kentucky Distilling Company, the fastest-growing distiller in the region. The distillery hosts tours, and offers tastings and merchandise for a large number of people annually. 

The Mayor of Beaver Dam for the past three years, Randal Camron, has seen how the growth of Bowling Green has affected Beaver Dam since he took office. 

“This growth is both welcomed and utilized as part of the strategic planning to make Beaver Dam a destination city–a destination away from the big city at a slower pace with access to world famous entertainment,” he said.

Ohio County isn’t just seeing growth as a tourist attraction and commuter region, however. Its economy has become increasingly diversified, as more manufacturers who supply to large operations in the Greater Bowling Green area have moved to or expanded in this county, which sits at the intersection of I-165 and I-169.

 “Our manufacturing base is spread out over a number of various industries in automotive, food processing, medical supplies, construction materials, lumber products, green energy, agricultural supplies and bourbon,” Diana Callahan said.

For instance, iCast has grown to be one of the largest precast concrete facilities across several states, producing concrete stormwater and wastewater structures and specialty concrete structures that are used all over the U.S. WPT Nonwovens has continued to add new specialty product lines to their Beaver Dam facility. It is also home to multi-generational family-owned Young’s Manufacturing, the worldwide leader in hardwood door casings and stair treads, which ships around the world.

“Green energy has also long been strong in Beaver Dam,” Camron said. “Industry that produces gas from waste byproducts from other industries have really expanded in this region since the mid 2020s and has become a major fuel source of growth for the greater Bowling Green area.”

With the I-165 corridor’s growth showing no signs of slowing down, local officials expressed just how heavily the future of the county is tied to the greater Bowling Green area and the continued growth of the whole Western Kentucky region, north of Nashville.