Mountainous southwest region works on economic-development challenges.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION

Graham County, the third-least populous county in the state, is 302 square miles of dignified mountain ranges, gentle lakes and stunning national parks.

The far western section of North Carolina is home to Fontana Dam, the tallest dam in the eastern U.S. A canopy of about 100 species of trees, some centuries-old and football-field tall, shade 3,800-acre Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Two-thirds of the county, which borders Tennessee on its western boundary, lies within the Nantahala National Forest, where elevations range from 1,177 to 5,560 feet. The forest itself climbs to 5,800 feet at Lone Bald in Jackson County and slopes to 1,200 feet in Cherokee County along the Hiwassee River.

This place is the definition of wilderness.

Still, Graham and its neighboring counties are within a three-hour drive of Atlanta, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Charlotte, and an hour-and-a-half from Asheville.

"If we were on flat land, we'd be at the center of it all, and Graham County would be a very different place. But an hour-and-a-half drive from the airport through God's country is much better than an hour-and-a-half drive through traffic from the airport to downtown in any major metropolitan area," says Sophia Paulos, Graham County's economic development director.

Paulos has been in the area for only two years. But she is firmly rooted.

"When I first moved from Washington, D.C., to Graham County two years ago, I described it as a large, raw diamond buried in the mud going unnoticed by all who passed by. Now, that diamond has been pulled into the light," she says.

Still, the far western section of North Carolina does present challenges. Highways cost more to build in the mountainous country, and natural gas is so expensive it's not feasible...