The ceremony Wednesday in Hartselle was largely a symbolic nod to the past, but it was also filled with the excitement and promise of tangible future development.

Twenty years ago, community leaders had the foresight to invest in vacant land on the Tennessee River. This week, state and local officials gathered to burn the $8.2 million note on Mallard Fox Creek Industrial Park and to break ground on Morgan County’s new business park.

The new space, 166 acres on both sides of Interstate 65 near Thompson Road, will target businesses related to the aerospace, biotech and defense industries based in Huntsville. The Morgan County Industrial Park and Economic Development Cooperative issued $16.7 million in bonds for land acquisition and will begin installing sewer, water and gas infrastructure in a couple of weeks.

Debt on the bonds will be serviced with county and municipal TVA in-lieu-of- taxes funds, just as the Mallard Fox Creek debt was paid.

If Mallard Fox Creek Park is any indication, investment in the new business park will reap massive dividends. Thirteen companies have invested more than $1.2 billion in Mallard Fox and provided thousands of jobs for local residents.

“In 20 years, who would have thought we would be in the steel- and rocket-making business,” said former Decatur Mayor Lynn Fowler, who sat on the first Mallard Fox Creek board.

Just as the initial industrial park lured United Launch Alliance, Nucor Steel and other industry to Morgan County, the new business park will bring companies on the cutting edge of technology for the 21st century and beyond.