Is Carter County growing?

When I saw the news that a meat processing plant is being built in Belltower, I was happy, but somewhat perplexed. My first thought was, is Carter County growing? I mean growing in population, of course. Now when I ask that question several things come to mind. The first one is what it used to be like.

I was born near Belltower in 1938. The first six years of my life was spent at various places around Ekalaka, although we did go to Washington very briefly when I was too young to remember. In 1944, we moved into Ekalaka and I left just after my high school graduation in 1956. Not that much time...