Hickory is a city in western North Carolina primarily located in Catawba County.

In 2014, Reader's Digest named the Hickory metro area as the 10th best place to live and raise a family in the United States.

Decorated in French renaissance style with mythological motifs, the opera house auditorium had seating for 750; the parquet balcony fit another 350.

[12] Hickory is home to one of the oldest furniture manufacturers in the United States that is still located and operated on the original site.

Residents who were then children recall summers of not being allowed to play outside or visit friends for fear of contracting the infectious disease.

Since local facilities were inadequate to treat the victims, the citizens of Hickory and the March of Dimes decided to build a hospital to care for the children of the region.

Following the police investigation, Zahra's stepmother, Elise Baker, was prosecuted and found guilty of second-degree murder.

The Zahra Baker All Children's playground, located in Kiwanis Park, is named in the girl's honor.

Duke Energy provides five public access areas on the lake in cooperation with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

Several unincorporated rural and suburban communities located nearby include Bethlehem, Mountain View, and St. Stephens.

[20] The Hickory Regional Airport is located in the western portion of the city and provides general aviation services.

Greenway Public Transportation operates six fixed bus routes around Hickory, Conover and Newton.

Greenway Public Transportation provides over 250,000 trips each year to residents living in the Hickory region.

[27] Likewise experience with textile manufacturing and easy access to power drove new industries in both fiber-optic cable[27] and pressure-sensitive tape.

[30][31] The furniture industry in Hickory is not as strong as in previous decades, but is still a primary component in the area economy.

The Hickory area is marketed as a data-center corridor[32] and is home to large data centers operated by Apple and Google.

[33] Hickory is home to the corporate headquarters of third-party logistics provider Transportation Insight, a member of North Carolina's top revenue tier of privately held businesses.

[34] In 2015, the company relocated its headquarters to the historic Lyerly Full Fashioned Mill in downtown Hickory.

[37] The Crawdads play at L.P. Frans Stadium, located in the western portion of the city, near the Hickory Regional Airport.

Lenoir-Rhyne University, whose teams have the nickname "Bears", participates within NCAA Division II athletics in the South Atlantic Conference.

The university's athletics program includes teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, triathlon, and volleyball.

The museum also features a long-term exhibition of Southern contemporary folk art, showcasing the work of self-taught artists from around the region.