Amherst County
Amherst County describes itself as a civilized widerness, blending "the best of rural and suburban living with thriving businesses, agriculture, local industries, the beautiful campus and educational opportunities at Sweet Priar College, quaint small towns and shopping areas, and wonderful residential neighborhoods."
It's an accurate assessment. Roughly half of the county's populations lives in Madison Heights, which spreads out just across the James River from Lynchburg. What most people see as they pass through on US 29 is a busy, four mile stretch of fast food restaurants and shopping centers. But a quick turn left or right off US 29 reveales suburban neighborhoods which gradually give way to farm houses with weathered barns.
North of Madison Heights is the small community of Monroe, a former railroad center perhaps best known for its inclusion in the classic bluegrass tune The Wreck of the Ol' 97. "They gave him his orders in Monroe, Virginia, saying' Pete, you're way behind time..."
The Town of Amherst is the county seat of government and law enforcement, both of which were recently enhanced by a $4.1 million expansion to the county courthouse, along with a new $770,000 building housing a centralized 911 dispatch center.
At the southern limits of the town is Sweet Briar College, another prominent player in the county's civic and economic life. The college's expanded and renovated Florence Elston Inn adn Wales Conference Cetner provide 58 private rooms and modern convention space for business meetings and other events.
Within several miles of the Town of Amherst are a number of the county's main employers, including companies manufacturing sandwich bags, air conditioning equipment, paperboard, packaging machinery, boxes and bricks.
Taking U.S. 60 to the west quickly delivers you into the Blue Ridge Mountains, home to much of the "widlerness" the county touts. The highway crests the mountains roughly halfway between
