Burns

The county's eastern gateway, leaning toward Nashville.

Burns sits on the eastern side of Dickson County, where the county reaches toward Nashville and the metro's pull is strongest. Of all the county's communities, Burns has most fully become a commuting and bedroom place — close to Interstate 40, close enough to the capital that the drive is short, and steadily growing as people look for a small-town life within reach of city work.

The town grew where the railroad met the old road to Nashville, and like Dickson it benefited from the rail line that ran through the eastern half of the county. Its history is less dramatic than White Bluff's iron forges or Charlotte's courthouse — Burns was always more a crossroads and a farming community than an industrial center — but the railroad and the road gave it a usefulness that has only grown with time.

What defines Burns today is its position. Interstate 40 runs along its doorstep, and that has brought the chain stores, the subdivisions, and the steady traffic that come with being the first stop off the highway into Dickson County from the east. The town has absorbed growth without losing the feel of a place where people know one another, and it has become, in its quiet way, the bridge between rural Dickson County and metropolitan Nashville.

For visitors, Burns is often the first taste of the county — the place where the highway exits begin and the country opens up. It's a useful base for exploring the rest of Dickson County, and a reminder that the line between Nashville's orbit and Middle Tennessee's small-town country runs right through here.