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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Catawba County, North Carolina.
Official Website
Overview
The county, formed in 1842 from Lincoln County, was named for the Catawba River. The word "catawba" is rooted in the Choctaw sound kat'a pa, loosely translated as "to divide or separate, to break." However, scholars are fairly certain that this word was imposed from outside. The Native Americans known as the Catawba people, a tribe of indigenous people who once inhabited the region, were once considered one of the most powerful Southeastern Siouan-speaking tribes in the Carolina Piedmont. They now live along the border of North Carolina near the city of Rock Hill, South Carolina. German and Scots-Irish colonial immigrants first settled in the Catawba River valley in the mid-18th century. An official history of the German and Scots-Irish settlement was documented in 1954 by Charles J. Preslar, Jr. and more recently by a series of three books by Gary Freeze, called The Catawbans.
Catawba County is part of the "North Carolina Data Center Corridor" in western North Carolina. Maiden is home to the Apple iCloud data center and the largest privately owned solar farm in the United States (operated by Apple). As of 2017, the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation controls a 55-acre business park in Conover designed for data centers and office use. CommScope and Corning, manufacturers of fiber optic cabling, became the region’s largest employers in the late 1990s.
Hickory is home to Lenoir–Rhyne University, the Hickory Motor Speedway, and the minor league baseball team the Hickory Crawdads. Conover is home to the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns, Townships & Communities
- Bandy's
- Banoak
- Blackburn
- Brookford
- Caldwell
- Catawba
- Claremont
- Clines
- Conover
- Drums Crossroads
- Hickory
- Jacob's Fork
- Lake Norman of Catawba
- Long Island
- Long View
- Maiden
- Mountain Creek
- Mountain View
- Newton (County Seat)
- Oliver's Crossroads
- Propst Crossroads
- St. Stephens
- Sherrill's Ford
- Terrell
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Historical Association of Catawba County
North Carolina Estate Files - Catawba County
North Carolina Pioneers of Catawba County
