hickory Mug

In the 1790s, a tavern was built in the northwest section of Catawba County. This area became known as Hickory Tavern. This name remained intact for almost 100 years. The city of Hickory was established in 1870. Over 40,000 people reside in this city today. Hickory is the economic, social, and cultural center of the Catawba Valley. Hickory was also know as "The Furniture Manufacturing Capital of the World" until recently as most plants have closed or moved production oversea's. Though it still retains the title as the "birthplace" of duct tape, originally invented during WWII at Shuford Mills as sealant for burst pipes in submarines the company has since changed it's name to Shur-Tape Technologies offering a wide variety of adhesives. Hickory is also home to racing legend Dale Jarrett (UPS #88), after winning the Winston-Cup race during the 90's he has since not won anymore races. Hickory made national headlines in 2002 after a rainstorm created one of the largest sinkholes ever, it also swallowed a brand new Corvette in the process. The sinkhole occurred in the parking lot of Buffalo's restaurant, the city inspector deemed the building unsafe and the owners closed to do extensive and expensive repair work to the parking lot and building, the restaurant closed within months of reopening. Hickory is also home to one of the finest learning establishments ever created, Hickory High School (HHS). The school is extremely stratified in its socio-economic classes as well as race. Armed police officers patrol the school campus to prevent and break up the common physical conflicts that erupt between students. Surprisingly, most of these fights are between students belonging to the same social group. Although the majority of teachers are inept in both areas of subject matter and teacher-pupil relations, a few are exemplary in their skills and seem to make up for the rest of them.