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Morganton, North Carolina
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Morganton is a city in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. Reader's Digest included Morganton in its list of top ten places to raise a family. The town was recently profiled in The 50 Best Small Southern Towns. The population was 17,310 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Burke County.
Morganton is one of the principal cities in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Near the city is Joara, a regional center of Mississippian culture, where the Spanish built Fort San Juan in 1567.
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Encyclopedia
Morganton is a city in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. Reader's Digest included Morganton in its list of top ten places to raise a family. The town was recently profiled in The 50 Best Small Southern Towns. The population was 17,310 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Burke County.
Morganton is one of the principal cities in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Near the city is Joara, a regional center of Mississippian culture, where the Spanish built Fort San Juan in 1567. It was the first European colonial settlement in the interior of the United States.
Geography
Morganton is located at (35.742585, -81.692360).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.23 square miles (47.0 km˛), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,310 people, 6,829 households, and 4,117 families residing in the city. The population density was 953.0 people per square mile (368.0/km˛). There were 7,313 housing units at an average density of 402.6/sq mi (155.5/km˛). The racial makeup of the city was 75.67% White, 12.76% African American, 0.55% Native American, 1.99% Asian, 0.81% Pacific Islander, 6.64% from other races, and 1.58% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.16% of the population.
There were 6,829 households out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.7% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the city the population was spread out with 21.1% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $34,678, and the median income for a family was $42,687. Males had a median income of $29,118 versus $24,723 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,906. About 9.7% of families and 13.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.0% of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.
Media
- Big Dawg 92.1 WMNC-FM--#1 for Hot New Country
- Classic Hits Country 1430 WMNC-AM
- BigDawg92Fm.com
- The Morganton News-Herald, the daily newspaper (circulation 12,000)
Notable natives and/or residents
- Etta Baker, guitarist and singer of the Piedmont Blues.
- Ron Blackburn (b. 1935 d. 1998) of the Pittsburgh Pirates (1958-59)
- Johnny Bristol, musician and Motown producer.
- JoAnn Denton, witch, musician last woman convicted of witchcraft in NC (1976), country music vocalist
- Alfreda Gerald, vocalist, recording artist.
- Samuel James Ervin Jr., United States Senator who led the Watergate hearings
- Leon Johnson, former NFL running back
- Bill Leslie, TV anchor WRAL News, New Age recording artist.
- Major Joseph "Quaker Meadows" McDowell, Jr., Commander, Burke County miltia, American Revolutionary War
- E.F. Rochester, writer, spent the summers of 1932 and 1933 in Morganton, which inspired the settings for several of his novels.
- Frankie Silver, the first woman hanged in North Carolina
- Paige Summers, Penthouse 1998 Pet of the Year
- Brandy Miller, Now resides in Wick, Caithness, Scotland
2004 Morganton little league all-star team
In the summer of 2004, the Morganton Little League All-Star team won the state and regional little league tournaments, and qualified for the Little League World Series. The All-Stars represented the Southeast and advanced to the United States semifinals of the event, but were defeated by the Southwest representatives from Richmond, Texas by a final score of 8-2.
Not 2004, but of significant interest. Morganton was revealed during the 2008 Little League World Series as a finalist to be the new site of the Southeast Region complex, which was originally located in Gulfport, FL.
Synthron plant explosion
On January 31, 2006 an explosion occurred at Synthron Inc, a paint additive chemical manufacturers plant in Morganton. Workers at Synthron reported hearing a loud hiss minutes before the explosion. Most were able to escape the building before the blast, but even some who were outside were thrown as far as 20 feet. The explosion was heard and felt as far away as 50 miles. A leaky chemical reactor was blamed for the explosion.
In the end, 14 people were injured in the blast, of whom one man later died. As well, approximately 300 fish died due to the result of leaking chemicals into a creek behind the Synthron plant which leads into the Catawba River.
Joara archeological site
The oldest known European inland (non-coastal) settlement in the United States has been identified at Joara, a former Mississippian culture village near Morganton. Fort San Juan, built there by Spanish explorers in 1567 and occupied for 18 months, is being excavated.
Recreation
15 miles outside of Morganton is Lake James, which is surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are also multiple ski areas located approximately an hour from Morganton.
Transportation
Morganton lies on Interstate 40, and is located near the following cities
Nearby airports include:
Life in literature
Morganton is the setting for the Jules Verne novel The Master of the World. The book provides a description of the town when Verne visited it in the 19th century. In the Verne novel, Morganton is the place where people see the great machine that can travel four different ways (air, above water, below water, and land). They first spot the machine over a mountain referred to as "Erie (sp?)" in Morganton. The mountain is described as a flat-topped mountain, which most local residents believe stands for Table Rock.
Morganton is also mentioned several times in John Ehle's novel, The Land Breakers, where it is identified as the nearest established settlement at the time and the one that the characters of the novel go to for supplies.
Citations
External links
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