Lake Hickory
Lake Hickory was created in 1927 with the completion of the Oxford Dam. The dam parallels the NC Highway 16 bridge over the Catawba River between I-40 and Taylorsville. It is 122 feet high, with an overall length of 1,200 feet. The spillway section of the dam is 550 feet long.
Lake Hickory was named after the nearby city of the same name. The lake covers almost 4,223 acres with 105 miles of shoreline. Full pond elevation is 935 feet sea level. Lake Hickory is a reliable source of water for the nearby cities of Hickory and Longview, North Carolina.
Duke Energy provides five public access areas on the lake in cooperation with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
Public Access Areas include:
- Gunpowder Access Area
- Lovelady Access Area
- River's Edge Marina
- Wittenburg Access Area
- Lakeside Marina
- Dusty Ridge Access Area
- Oxford Access Area
- River Bend Park
- SandBar Marina & Grill
- Taylorsville Beach Marina
- John Geitner Park
- Glen C. Hilton Park
- Lake Hickory Marina
The Greater Hickory Metro region lies on the southern shore and includes the counties of Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba and 24 municipalities. The region contains prominent peaks, rolling foothills and reaches into the Carolina Piedmont. Lake Hickory is part of the beautiful Catawba River System and is an hour drive to the quiet, magestic Blue Ridge Mountains, to Charlotte, to Winston-Salem or to Asheville. Catawba County is the largest county in the region in terms of population (157,034), while Hickory is the region’s largest municipality (41,305). Close behind are Morganton (17,097) and Lenoir (18,461).
