Pickett County, Tennessee, population 4,800, may never be home to a major corporate headquarters.

But for the people who like to spend their time in fishing boats on Dale Hollow Lake, that doesn’t matter much. They come from all over the region searching for a life much slower, more relaxing, less hectic.

The lake has long been a quiet destination, tucked away on the northern rim of the state. Recently though, several economic development agencies, including the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development, put their heads together and came up with the funding for a Welcome Center adjacent to a nearby interstate.

Now Dale Hollow Lake and Pickett County are building a reputation as a bona fide tourist destination.

“You might not get Toyota or Nissan to put a plant here, but you can capture economic development dollars in the form of people spending money in your county, increasing your tax base,” says Rick Meredith, Tennessee assistant commissioner for community development.

Pickett County’s brand of innovation is an example of the broader view Tennessee is taking toward rural economic development. The state has mapped out a new strategy to take the business growth it has enjoyed over the last five years beyond the big cities and burgeoning suburbs, into the small towns most in need of economic activity.

“What we try to do is help those rural counties understand their situation,” says Meredith. “We’re saying to them, ‘It’s OK. You can do this. The state’s going to help you.’”

The economic development department has carved the 95-county state map into 10 regions and assigned each one to a regional economic development specialist, or REDS, trained in every aspect of rural development, from building an effective Web site to cultivating small business to identifying tourism opportunities.

Tennessee has 72 counties designated as rural communities and the REDS work with local leaders in focusing their efforts on those areas. Sometimes that means partnering with educators to drive up the county graduation rate. Sometimes that means improving the look of the downtown business district. Sometimes, as in Pickett County’s case, that means shifting the focus from business recruitment to tourism.

“All 72 counties have something unique,” Meredith says.

The heightened focus on Tennessee’s rural communities comes on the heels of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Rural Opportunity Initiative, a three-pronged strategy to drive rural investment.

“Rural counties, in many instances, don’t have access to (the) resources and don’t know what they need in order to be successful in creating jobs and economic activity,” says Matt Kisber, TDECD commissioner.

A major component of the ROI initiative is the Rural Opportunity Fund, a pool of capital for small businesses opening or expanding in rural Tennessee. Across the state, 85 percent of jobs are created by businesses with 25 or fewer employees, and those businesses sometimes may not be able to get backing from commercial lenders.

The fund gives small businesses in rural Tennessee the same access to capital available in major urban areas, says Clint Gwin, president of Southeast Community Capital, the fund’s private partner.

“Those are the communities that have been most impacted with manufacturing job losses in the last 10 years,” he says. “This gives those communities a way to create new businesses, grow businesses that are already there and increase job creation and wealth creation.”