Historic Hawkins County in northeast Tennessee is an area so rich and diverse in history that it is actually 10 years older than the state itself. Organized in 1786, it was named for Benjamin Hawkins, a member of the Continental Congress. Rogersville, the county seat, boasts the state's oldest courthouse. The town of Pressmen's Home served as the headquarters for the International Printing Pressmen's Union of America. During the Civil War, the Battle of Big Creek was fought on the banks of the Holston River a few miles south of Surgoinsville. Built in 1762, Long Meadow in Carters Valley is considered Tennessee's oldest wooden structure. The county's natural beauty once attracted Hollywood; in 1983, The River, starring Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek was filmed in Laurel Run Park in Churchill. Motown legend Diana Ross has ancestral ties to Rotherwood Plantation in Allendale. Today Hawkins County retains much of the illustrious history and charm that has captivated residents and visitors for over 200 years.

A cocky, wise-cracking young Juvenile Probation Officer battles troubled lives and senseless deaths as he establishes a career and finds adventure friendship, romance and a new home in Hawkins County. Although fictionalized, this bittersweet story is based on actual people and events on a small, rural county. But "Hawkins County" is more than a corrections casework study. It is a trip back to the 1970's, and it's all here - the movies, the TV shows, the tunes, the jokes, the humor, the heartache, Vietnam - all the elements that influenced our lives during the era. "Hawkins County" is for baby boomers, Vietnam veterans, law enforcement officials, social workers, youth counselors, probation officers - yes, even juvenile delinquents and others who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law - and everyone else who savors a nostalgic story about life as it happened during the 1970's.