Town of Rocky Mount

Rocky Mount is the gateway to North Carolina's Coastal Plain region and the IBX. The city, situated in Nash and Edgecombe Counties, boasts a rich heritage that once placed it among national leaders in rail transportation, agriculture and textiles. 

In the 1960s, Rocky Mount was recognized as one of the world's largest bright leaf tobacco markets.  The city is also the birthplace of Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. and RBC Centura Bank.

Today's Rocky Mount lies at the interchange of two major transportation corridors, I-95 and U.S. 64, a location that has attracted one of the world's leading diesel engine manufacturers (Consolidated Diesel Company), a leader in medical products manufacturing (Hospira), and one of the nation's largest food distributors (MBM Corporation).

Rocky Mount has a population of nearly 60,000, while the MSA population approaches nearly 150,000. 

Uniquely notable about the region are the extraordinary number of native sons and daughters who hail from the Rocky Mount area and have gone on to become nationally and internationally recognized figures in business, literature and the arts, government and athletics. 

For example, the sitting governor of the State of North Carolina, Michael Easley, was born here, as were North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker. 

Banking leaders include the chairmen of two of the nation's four largest financial services companies, Bill Harrison (JP Morgan Chase) and Ken Thompson (Wachovia Corporation). 

Other notable natives include novelists Kaye Gibbons and Allen Gurganus and numerous sports superstars like baseball Hall of Famer Buck Leonard, NBA stars Buck Williams and Phil Ford, North Carolina Sports Hall of Famers Danny Talbott and Jim Clack, and legendary high school coach, Herman Boone, inspiration for the motion picture classic, "Remember the Titans".

Largely because of its location, climate, and broad-based cultural amenities, Rocky Mount/Nash County ranks sixteenth (16^th) out of 100 counties in economic impact from tourism.  Visitors to the area will experience the Rocky Mount Renaissance, a cultural and commercial rebirth of a community devastated by Hurricane Floyd in 1999.  Symbols of the renaissance include many must sees, highlighted by the one-of-a-kind, nationally-acclaimed Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences.  The city now holds claim to a multi-million dollar, multi-sport athletic complex, the newly-completed Harrison Family YMCA, the Rocky Mount Mills industrial complex at the Falls of the Tar River and the surrounding mill village now under restoration, a new Farmers Market, the new 59,000 square-foot Braswell Memorial Library and a beautifully-restored historic train station/transportation hub.  Furthermore, millions of dollars in public/private capital investment are paving the way for a totally revitalized business/residential mix in Historic Downtown Rocky Mount.

Nature and walking trails abound, highlighted by the 3.5 mile Tar River Trail, beginning at historic Sunset Park and ending at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.  This scenic route crosses the Tar River at the largest, single-span wooden bridge in the United States.  Sunset Park also features one of the nations oldest wooden carousels, miniature train rides, a spray park, and skateboard ramps.  And every visit to Rocky Mount must include a leisurely stroll around scenic City Lake Park.  Now, that's just Remarkable.