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The article discusses economic development of Appalachian Ohio, the southeastern portion of the state. Although the region's 29 counties boast some of the highest unemployment rates in the state-topped by Morgan County at 15.2 percent unemployment in April, there is hope. A burgeoning tourism industry is pumping up the area's service economy, while the focus on luring high-tech firms has already reinvigorated several small towns. The Hocking Hills region, with its supposedly haunted caves and the natural beauty of nearby 233,000-acre Wayne National Forest, is the gem of the new tourism trade. The tech sector, however, takes more nurturing. Diagnostic Hybrids Inc. counts on the support of a nearby Ohio University cam pus. The United States Enrichment Corp., which supplies enriched uranium fuel to commercial nuclear power plants, opted to construct another plant in Pike County after the governor's office offered more than $125 million in tax breaks, job retraining and other incentives. Such optimism, however, isn't universal.