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1986 Map of Hickory

Name: 1986 Topographic Map of Hickory
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1995
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1995

About this map

Hickory and its neighboring furniture and textile centers of Lenoir, Morganton, and Newton form the industrial heart of this Foothills region during the mid-1980s. The Catawba River is the defining geographical feature, harnessed into a series of reservoirs including Lake James, Lake Rhodhiss, Lake Hickory, and Lookout Shoals Lake. These water bodies, along with the Southern Railway corridor, dictated the growth patterns of towns like Valdese, Conover, and Maiden.

Significant public institutions are prominent on the landscape, including Rutherford College, Broughton Hospital, and the Western Carolina Center. To the west and south, the terrain rises sharply into the Pisgah National Forest and South Mountains State Park. This survey captures the transition from the steep elevations of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area and Blue Ridge Parkway to the rolling Piedmont where settlements like Taylorsville and Denver serve as local hubs.