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This article seeks to identify factors associated with the formation and development of nonmetropolitan destinations for older in‐migration, thereby explaining why some U.S. counties are more likely than others to be nonmetro retirement destinations. We contend that most nonmetro retirement destinations are established and developed over time through a path‐dependent process. When amenities are commodified as recreation and tourism, migration streams tend to be established that ultimately produce sustained in‐migration of older persons to selected destination communities. We use data from a variety of official sources and a spatial statistics methodology to examine intercounty variability in net migration rates at ages 60–74. Our findings are consistent with the aforementioned path‐dependent development framework. Counties with a long history of population growth, previous experience attracting older in‐migrants, attractive natural amenities, and a developed recreation and tourism industry are those most likely to be retirement‐age migration destinations. In contrast, agricultural heartland and relatively large population size are associated with lower rates of older in‐migration. Older in‐migration should be seen as neither a panacea for strapped rural communities nor a “pensions and care issue.” Older migrants can be “gray gold,” but they can also pose challenges, such as possibly increased demand for public services as they age in place.

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The rural United States has suffered long-term population decline over the past several decades, especially in farming communities. In recent years, biofuel production has been argued to hold potential for the revitalization of rural America and in response, many rural communities have eagerly attempted to attract ethanol plants as a local development effort. This study conceptualizes economic revitalization in terms of population dynamics and investigates whether the establishment of a biofuel plant has been associated with changes in population aging, natural increase, and/or migration trends in the West North Central United States, the location of the majority of the nation's biofuel plants. Using path dependence as a conceptual framework and aggregate statistics from a variety of sources, results from spatial regression models indicate that despite initial expectations, ethanol plants have no association with the demographic trajectories of rural counties.

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