How does a place like Grayling, Michigan thrive in the 21st Century?

Home to about 15,000 people, the Grayling area is known as a crossroads in northern Michigan, a place most people simply drive through on their way to Mackinac Island, Traverse City, or Petoskey.

The last big-name employer, Fred Bear Archery, left town more than a generation ago. The average household income is only about 75 percent of the national average. And, in recent years, community economic development hopes have rested on a grand and unrealized plan to build a massive amusement park south of town -- a possible threat to the region's main source of economic and natural wealth, which is the Au Sable River system known for it's pristine wilderness areas, world-class trout fishery, and excellent canoeing.

Northern Michigan is covered in remote towns like Grayling, and Mio, and Lake City, and Wolverine, and Roscommon that have few businesses in their industrial parks and few options for significant economic development to grow their communities beyond the base tourism industry.

New hopes are pinned on a team of Michigan State University researchers who've just launched a $150,000 federally funded project to identify growth strategies so northern Michigan can better compete in the global economy.

"Hopefully, this opens up opportunities for new careers in this neck of the woods and opportunities for training for new jobs," Diane Rekowski, executive director of the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments told The Crawford County Avalanche.