Editing Catawba County, North Carolina (section)

==Economy==
Catawba County is part of the "North Carolina Data Center Corridor" in western North Carolina.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/04/north-carolina-data-center-corridor/|title=North Carolina's Data Center Corridor: From Fiber to Servers {{!}} Data Center Knowledge|date=January 4, 2013|work=Data Center Knowledge|access-date=July 11, 2017|language=en-US}}</ref> The town of [[Maiden, North Carolina|Maiden]] is home to the [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] iCloud data center and is the largest privately owned solar farm in the United States (operated by [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]). As of 2017, the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation controls a 55-acre business park in [[Conover, North Carolina|Conover]] designed for data centers and office use.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.catawbaedc.org/properties/ncdatacampus|title=ncDataCampus – Catawba EDC|website=www.catawbaedc.org|access-date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> [[CommScope]], Inc., and [[Corning Inc.|Corning]] Corp., manufacturers of fiber optic cabling, became the region's largest employers in the late 1990s. The city of Hickory is home to [[Lenoir–Rhyne University]], the [[Hickory Motor Speedway]], and the minor league baseball team the [[Hickory Crawdads]]. The town of Conover is home to the [[Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn]].