The Tennessee Century Farms Program identifies farms owned by the same family for at last 100 years. Nearly 900 farms in Tennessee have been certified. The Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University maintains a database of information and photographs based on information supplied by the farm families. A Century Farms Perspective, published in 1986, describes each farm and includes both black and white and color photographs.  

McMinn County has 36 properties and is tied with Greene County for the most registered Century Farms in Tennessee. These farms represent the diversity of East Tennessee farming from the small tobacco and beef cattle farm of the twentieth century to the large grist and saw mill complexes of the nineteenth century. Other farm activities included a family general store, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the operation of a dairy that supplied Civilian Conservation Corps work crews during the Great Depression. The farms identified in 1986 were: