Car Accident Injury Attorneys in Hickory, NC

HICKORY, N.C. — There is a death investigation being conducted after a man’s body was found on Thursday in Lake Hickory. People on personal watercrafts found him on the Granite Falls side of the lake.

The 47-year-old man was planning to fish on Wednesday, but his fishing gear was left behind at a brother’s home, family members said. They don’t know why he ended up in that area.

Sheriff’s deputies, Wildlife officers, and Caldwell County Emergency Services were on the north shore of Lake Hickory near where the body was found.

Tiffany Bailey and her daughters saw first responders scramble to get to the scene on Thursday.

“It was kind of scary,” Bailey said. “It’s always quiet down here. There are never any issues.”

Neighbors said the body was found feet from the train trestle that crosses Lake Hickory. Earlier this week, a neighbor described seeing people jump from the bridge into the water, but the victim’s family didn’t believe that happened. However, they said he had injuries to his head and an arm.

“He was a very good swimmer,” a family member said. “He loved to fish, but he did not have no kind of fishing equipment in his possessions. He had a hammock, which he loved, just being out in nature.”

Deputies are not releasing the identity of the man. However, they said some of his belongings were found nearby.

His family said he was last seen on Tuesday.

Bailey is hoping for answers in the case

“Anything can happen at any moment,” Bailey said. “And you always have to be careful, and that’s why I have to keep a close eye on them. So, they don’t get close because we live so close to the lake.”

The family member said they believe the death may have been accidental.

There will be an autopsy on Monday.

No additional details have been made available.

This is a developing story. Check back with and watch Eyewitness News for updates.

Hickory Tavern has abruptly closed four restaurants, including three in the Charlotte area.

The Charlotte-born sports bar and grill served its last meals at Mooresville, Huntersville and Charlotte’s Providence Road locations on Sunday, Aug. 23, parent company Artistry Restaurants said in a news release sent to CharlotteFive.

The Columbia-Vista restaurant in South Carolina was also marked “permanently closed.”

The restaurant group called it a “challenging yet strategic move” meant to prioritize other Hickory Tavern locations “best positioned for long-term success.”

A self-dubbed “neighborhood gathering spot,” Hickory Tavern serves cold drinks alongside a menu of classic bar bites. Think: loaded nachos, mozzarella sticks, saucy wings and flatbreads.

The closures bring the chain’s total locations to 16, with remaining area locations in North Charlotte, Ballantyne, Steele Creek, Indian Trail and Rock Hill. If you don’t mind driving a bit further, Hickory Tavern also has a spot in Gastonia.

“While never an easy decision, it is important that we regularly evaluate where we can operate more efficiently so our resources and future investments are directed toward the priorities that will best serve our teams and guests,” Bryan Lockwood, CEO of Artistry Restaurants, said in the release.

“These changes, along with other efficiencies, will support Hickory Tavern’s long-term plan and strength as a brand.”

It’s not clear how many workers were impacted by the closures. However, a spokesperson said the company is working to “transfer as many employees as possible” to other nearby Hickory Tavern locations.

Florida-based Artistry Restaurants acquired Hickory Tavern in early 2025. Its portfolio of brands also includes Boca, The Chapman, Shrimp Basket and Oak & Stone, among others.

This is a developing story and will be updated. Catherine Muccigrosso contributed reporting.

Hickory Tavern

Location: 9010 Harris Corners Pkwy, Charlotte, NC 28269

Location: 12210 Copper Way #212, Charlotte, NC 28277

Location: 6455 Old Monroe Rd Ste B-21, Indian Trail, NC 28079

Location: 2674 Celanese Rd Apt 101, Rock Hill, SC 29732

Menu

Cuisine: American

Instagram: @hickorytavern

HICKORY, N.C. (WBTV) - Alexander County leaders are hopeful water testing Thursday will allow them to reopen Wittenburg Swim Beach in Bethlehem after a sewage spill earlier this week closed the access point.

On Wednesday, July 1, Alexander County leaders said a lightning strike is believed to have caused a nearby pump to leak 6,000 gallons of wastewater into the water near the beach access.

Repairs were made, however a water sample on Tuesday found slightly elevated levels of bacteria, the county said.

A water sample was taken Wednesday, but results won’t be ready until Thursday morning.

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Valerie Furlan showed up with her children to swim Wednesday, but found the access area closed.

“They very well could have kept this open, but it seems like they’re taking our safety into consideration, I just hope it opens up soon,” Furlan said.

Cayden Cobb brought his children as well, but given the heat, allowed them to jump in the water away from the closed beach.

“I mean the kids were sad but it is what it is,” Cobb said. “I mean I’m glad they keep an eye on it, but at the same time I believe it’s a little overkill. There’s tons of dead fish, God knows what [people] throw off that bridge at night when nobody is looking.”

In a statement to WBTV, Alexander County said, “The safety of our residents and visitors remains our top priority, and we appreciate the public’s patience as we continue to monitor water quality.”

For the latest updates, check the Wittenburg Swim Beach on Facebook by clicking here.

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There’s a version of this story that reads like a press release and ends with a groundbreaking ceremony and a ribbon cutting. There is another version that gets at what is actually happening in Hickory, North Carolina, and why a small Italian-American gunstock company laying down more square footage matters in a way that goes well beyond gunstocks.

WOOX announced this month that it will break ground on an expansion of its Hickory manufacturing facility, with completion targeted for the end of 2026. Not only new buildings, but new hires and more capacity for the company’s American walnut and laminate-series stocks and chassis, which are the products that have outrun WOOX’s existing footprint. That’s the headline.

The longer story is about a town. Hickory, for most of the 20th century, was the furniture capital of America. At its peak, the woodworking trade in and around the city employed tens of thousands of skilled craftsmen across North Carolina. Then the 1990s arrived, followed by the 2000s. Production moved overseas, mostly to China, and what had been a generations-deep tradition of hand-finishing and shaping wood for a living got hollowed out in less than a decade. Family workshops closed and apprenticeships disappeared. The kind of practical knowledge that does not live in a textbook and only transfers through years of standing next to someone who already knows how went with them.

WOOX, which was founded by the Minelli family in the mountain valleys of Bergamo, Italy, in 1937, decided several years ago that the answer to building premium gunstocks in America was to plant them somewhere that already understood wood. Hickory was the obvious choice. The craftsmen the company has hired and trained in North Carolina learned their technique directly from the same Italian family that has been refining it for 88 years. That’s not a marketing line. It’s how the company actually operates.

The product side of the story is its own thing. WOOX builds stocks and chassis for many popular rifle and shotgun platforms in circulation, including the Remington 700, Savage 110, Weatherby Vanguard, CZ 457 and Ruger 10/22, plus the AR-15 and AR-10 families. The construction blends American walnut with carbon-reinforced nylon and precision metalwork, which is how the company hits both the classical aesthetics that traditional riflemen want and the modularity that competition shooters need.

Every stock is shaped from an individually selected blank. WOOX does not use molds. Roughly one out of every 25 walnut blanks the company examines meets its standard for grain, figure, density and structural integrity. The rest become something other than a WOOX stock. From there, each piece is hand-finished by the team in Hickory using the same technique the Minelli family has been refining since 1937. The carbon-reinforced chassis inserts mean the barreled action drops in without bedding or pillars, and customers regularly report that their rifles shoot better after the upgrade than they did before.

What WOOX is building in Hickory is bigger than a manufacturing footprint. It is an attempt to reconstitute a craft tradition that the American economy decided in the 1990s it could afford to lose.