Qualla: Hickory, North Carolina

Hickory, North Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the summer of 1944, polio came to the Catawba Valley with terrifying speed. The area around Hickory became one of the worst outbreaks of the disease ever recorded in the United States. Local hospitals could not handle the children flooding in. So the citizens of Hickory and the March of Dimes made a decision. They would build their own hospital. From the moment they decided to the moment doctors were treating patients in a new facility, less than 54 hours passed. A Red Cross official on the scene called it 'the most outstanding example of cooperative effort he has ever seen.' Hickory called it the Miracle of Hickory. The phrase has stuck for 82 years.

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Image: Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hickory, North Carolina: The Tavern Under the Tree

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tylerg, CC BY-SA 3.0. The city's name comes from a tavern - a log structure built in the 1850s underneath a hickory tree. Henry Link bought the first town lot in 1858 for $45. The first train rolled near Hickory Tavern in 1859. By 1870 it was a town, by 1873 simply Hickory, by 1889 a city. Electric li...

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Image: Tylerg | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hickory, North Carolina: The Furniture Belt

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pinknailpolish1, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hickory White - founded as the Hickory Manufacturing Company in 1902 - is one of the oldest furniture makers in the United States still operating on its original site. During World War II it switched to making ammunition boxes for the military. At the industry's peak, an estimate...

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Image: Pinknailpolish1 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hickory, North Carolina: Forty Percent of the World's Fiber

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Netmogul, Public domain. Beyond furniture, Hickory makes things that connect things. Forty percent of the world's fiber-optic cable is manufactured in the Hickory area. Corning Incorporated has major operations here. CommScope, the Fortune 500 network infrastructure company, is based in nearby Claremont....

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Image: Netmogul | Public domain

Hickory, North Carolina: Crawdads, Bumgarner, and the SALT Block

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sanitys Fall, CC BY-SA 4.0. L.P. Frans Stadium on the west side of town hosts the Hickory Crawdads, the Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Hickory Motor Speedway sits just south in Newton, running its NASCAR Weekly Series season. The Hickory Aviation Museum at the regional airport began with a single ...

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Image: Sanitys Fall | CC BY-SA 4.0