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The Hickory Metro area offers a wealth of activities for those individuals who enjoy the outdoors. Lake Hickory (4,223 acres) offers mile after mile of shoreline with boating, fishing, and campgrounds readily available. In addition, the area is home to ten golf courses, both public and private as well as being home to the Hickory Crawdads, a Class A minor league baseball team.
The Hickory Motor Speedway, a racing facility that has presented competitions for over 50 years and is hailed as the birthplace of NASCAR stars Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, Ned and Dale Jarrett and Harry Gant.
Other recreational opportunities include numerous city and county parks with fitness and nature trails. Bakers Mountain Park, the highest point in Catawba County, (1780 feet) offers some six miles of trails and 189 acres of mature forest.
Both city and county parks offer playgrounds and the Zahra Baker All Children's Playground being especially designed for children with disabilities to enjoy. Hickory has been named "an All-American City" three times, the last time in 2007. This prestigious award is given to only ten cities in the United States yearly. The Hickory Metro area has also been named the 10th best place to live and raise a family in American by Reader's Digest. Higher educational institutions include Lenoir-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College.
The area also has a strong line-up of festivals and cultural events including Octoberfest, the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival, the Old Soldier's Reunion, Art Crawl, Hickory Hops and the Murray's Mill festival. All festivals feature artisans showing a variety of local pottery, jewelry, glass, fabrics and woodcrafts. Another popular event is the Hickory Alive program featuring free concerts held every Friday evening in June and July in downtown Hickory.
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