Kenton, TN

Kenton is a town straddling the Gibson and Obion county line in West Tennessee. The 2020 census counted 1,205 residents. Highway 45 runs through the town, with City Hall, police, fire, water, sewer, and the local school close to the center. The county line is not a footnote here: the business district is largely in Obion County while much of the residential area sits in Gibson County.

Kenton grew with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which reached the town in the 1850s and turned a surveyed crossroads into a working rail town. It incorporated in the 1870s and later added paved roads, electric lights, waterworks, and sewer service. Kenton’s signature today is its white squirrel population, remembered through protected habitat, feeders, and a July White Squirrel Festival. The town’s agriculture and small businesses still serve the surrounding flat country, while larger county services run toward Trenton and Union City. Kenton is a county-line town where the railroad past and the white-squirrel present share Main Street.