The Hickory Museum of Art is located at the SALT complex which was once a high school gymnasium…read more Both admission and parking are free and if the lot in front is full there is a huge lot in the back. Hickory Museum of Art just celebrated its 80th Anniversary. The museum is on three levels and they have curvy staircases; regular staircases and an elevator. I used each during my visit as the curvy stairs made me dizzy so I opted for the elevator to the 3rd floor and found the regular stairs. Besides in the big open spaces there is also art to be found in the nooks and crannies of the art portion of the building. There are also hands on areas for children. I really enjoyed the In Memoriam exhibit of Joe LaFone. I do not believe I had seen his work before but I loved the vibrant colors of the work as well as the textures. It grabbed my attention and made me smile. I believe there are permanent and changing exhibits so that means a return trip to see the new artwork and discover another artist new to me.

I'm surprised that I'm getting the FTR on this wonderful museum. While it's not MOMA or the Getty,…read moreit's a great museum in a small town that is an exurb of Charlotte. Five stars because it's in a category all by itself. Y'all need to make the trip up here! The Hickory Museum of Art has a long-term exhibition of Southern contemporary folk art, showcasing the work of self-taught artists from around the region. North Carolina's second oldest museum, Hickory Museum of Art was established in 1944 when visionary founding Director, Paul Whitener, declared, "I am going to make Hickory, North Carolina an art center." Hickory Museum of Art first earned national accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 1991. The museum is free to enter though they of course accept donations. When I visited, only the first and third floors were accessible as the second floor is currently having a changeover of exhibitions. You can easily tour the entire place in an hour. Today, the museum's permanent collection includes approximately 1,500 art objects, ranging from Hudson River School paintings, American art pottery, Glass Art, High-Speed Photography, and the work of regional artists. The third floor of "folk art" was interesting and enjoyable though not the type of art that I usually look for. On the first floor, more landscapes and portraits and a few pieces of contemporary art. Definitely more my speed. The museum has free parking and if you've come this far, check out the Ivey Arboretum two blocks away which features 50 different species of trees and plantings plus a few pieces of public sculpture, https://www.yelp.com/biz/ivey-arboretum-at-sally-fox-park-hickory?hrid=7Ncg9GcUykd7nIRM-MopeA. The museum shares the space with the Catawba Science Center. [Review 15882 overall - 3098 in North Carolina - 1386 of 2021.]

This is a fine aviation museum with a fantastic brand new air conditioned building. Great…read morecollection of aircraft. Very knowledgeable and friendly museum personnel to answer questions and give tours.

What a fantastic new facility! We've enjoyed the museum for many years and are so glad to see it…read moremoved into this incredible new space where these gorgeous birds can truly shine! This is an extraordinary museum for all ages, with beautifully restored and displayed aircraft, artifcats, and hands-on activities! A must-visit!

We love coming to Hickory for Crawdads games!…read more The prices are good, the atmosphere is great, there is always so much fun stuff going on and the food options are good. We really enjoy the funnel cake fries and the lemonade is fresh squeezed, refreshing, and fantastic! Don't forget to grab you some peanuts and cracker jacks!! They have so many activities for the kids going on all the time and their fireworks are fantastic on firework nights!

I love Minor League Baseball! What a fun ballpark on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mtns. Been coming…read moreto watch the C'Dads play near on 8 years. In North Carolina, It's those cool crisp April evenings and hot humid August nights that make this a great place to watch a ball game. The low A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, the Crawdads have seen their share of baseball talent move up the minor league ladder. And that means Hickory and the surrounding area has a chance to see THE SHOW'S future. Very affordable tickets, fine enough concessions (maybe the best hot dog I've had at any minor league park!), family fun with games and a carousel, concerts after games and let's not forget Thirsty Thursdays and Fireworks weekends! Sometimes as game time nears, the sun is low in the western sky, the air is clear and off to the north you see the mountain profiles and understand why they'er called the Blue Ridge. Just then the ump yells PLAY BALL and ALL is right with the world.

The Catawba County Museum of History is located in a 1924 Courthouse. Museums in historic buildings…read moreare always neat. Parking was easy to find around the courthouse. Admission to the museum is free but they had a box for donations. This was a strange museum visit for me as I didn't encounter a soul. When I entered I heard the door chimes and there was a sign to check in at the guestbook then I went through the first level of the building as I wasn't sure where I was allowed and not allowed to be. It appears more exhibits were on the second floor. Some of the exhibits appeared to be missing in some of the rooms so might be getting restored or a new exhibit is getting ready to go in. But then there were some really nice exhibits on dairy farming; medicine and polio; minerals and mining of gemstones was another. They have the largest carved sapphire in a case. Some of the exhibits rotate so I might get back for a return visit.

Its was a great experience with my kids. Its was free but can donate if you want too. Very quite…read moreplace and interesting learning about this catawba county. It's even have a little place for kids to play too. Would definitely come and visit again.

Such a fun place to go! I took my brother for some bonding and fun for him, he's constantly working…read moreso hard so I forced him to take a day for fun. They have sweet, easy zip lines and fun rope ladders, all very safe I might add. I have been on some serious ones in Mexico ( I'll get to those later ) We had a fun afternoon, made a new Facebook friend and enjoyed seeing my brother laugh and smile.

They were open until four and it was 2pm and the door was locked and no one was there, it could've…read morebeen a family emergency or something.

One of the best haunted houses around, price is good too. I certainly did not expect how great this…read moreplace was gonna be. This place one upped lake hickory haunts for sure. Warning: they can and will touch you if you aren't wearing the glowstick. They will kidnap members of your group and you windup back with them later in the walk. If you don't like really freaky stuff do not go here. Wonderful for a good scare.

Very good haunted attraction, not exactly what I expected when I heard about it though. I won't…read morespoil it but trust me it is worth the money! My absolute favorite part was the clowns but the hellbillies were definitely quite creepy.. I'm pretty easily scared and got jumpscared many, many times and it was great. Highly recommend.

I remember in both elementary and middle school my friends and I used to go here. The staff was…read morealways pretty rough here and disrespectful to absolutely everyone. It was to a point where my mom would not leave me and my friends alone here she would stay to make sure that we weren't being disrespected by staff members. You can even see on the Google reviews they were always yelling at children and talking down to people degrading them. My real problem comes in with the owner or previous owner Daniel. What happened 5 years ago when I was 12. I would go as far as saying, I was harassed by him, and he started to hate campaign against me to his staff. so what happened was he had this area section off, and it was only being restricted by a chain that was attached two column walls. One of my friends had tripped over this, and that caused part of the wall to fall off with the chain. It was a very clean break and a very small chunk of wall. It probably only would've took some basic home repair glue or whatever to fix it. The owner started yelling at everyone who was crowding the area seeing what happened. I don't even think he asked my friend if she was OK. This resulted in us being very embarrassed and upset, and especially me because I knew that my mother and my parents had been giving this place a lot of money at that point. We had bought several pairs of rollerskates off of them and rollerskate bags. We had come basically every Friday. Bringing in money every Friday. So even 12-year-old was like if this is how you're gonna treat a paying customer I'm gonna leave a bad review. Of course, my bad review when I was 12 was probably not very helpful and it was probably exaggerated. The day after I made the review, I did end up deleting it because I felt bad and my friends had also made bad reviews, but none of them faced the hatred that I faced when I came back to the skating rink. when I came back, Daniel the owner yelled. What are you doing here? I was like I deleted the review and I just want to skate like normal. With the skates that I bought off YOU. And bag I bought off YOU DANIEL! he should appreciate that we were such loyal customers, I understand 12-year-old me might've made a mistake and he's allowed to allow whoever he does or doesn't want in his establishment. My mother was with me and tried to talk to him, he would not allow me to even step foot in the skating rink, but he let my mom go into a private room with him where she told me that he just yelled at her so she left. I believe he took her in the privacy to yell at her because he knew that he would be stopped if he did it in public. When a review is deleted, you have nothing to be mad about anymore. It's gone. And your customers are back so why are you mad? this is not good business. I am only 5 feet and 100 pounds, and I was probably even smaller when I was 12 because I'm 18 years old now and I know I'm right for this bad review. I cannot be guilt tripped into deleting it ever again. my size is relevant to the rest of the story because he had this big guy when I tried to enter the room, I think I was just trying to go with my mom. But he had this big guy, literally go chest to chest with a child. This man was pointing me out and not even saying anything to me, but "out". Daniel, you put 12 year-old me in danger by separating me from my mother I could have been kidnapped and you know the type of people besides kids that come to skating rinks. they don't have stellar records let's just say that. to me it just sounds like Daniel was a big coward because I know he wouldn't have yelled at my mom or me if my father was there. My father wouldn't have allowed it and he wouldn't have done it with another man in his presence. Who was not below him. His staff is below him so they have to listen. Daniel is lucky that we stopped my father from going over there. I would call this harassment and a hate campaign, I would say it's harassment because he brought my mother into a private room to yell at her. That is in intimidation and very threatening to my mother. He intimidated me with that large man, even though he never needed a large man to do that he just could've told me stay out of there. To me the fact that he turned his staff against me too, was a hate campaign because I was friends with those people. And all of his staff just seemed like they had turned against me. Keep in mind the review had been deleted. I had apologized and his customers had all come back, so there was really nothing to be like this about. He knew we were loyal customers.

As I teenager it is very fun place to come and hangout with your friends and skate the workers are…read morevery nice and funny

We visited for a school field trip and were really impressed! The exhibits managed to keep both my…read more5-year-old and my husband completely engaged (not easy). The staff was so nice and accommodating. A cool place for car enthusiasts but 10/10 highly recommend it for families too!

This was the first time I've ever been to a car museum. I recommend checking out this place. A lot…read moreof history and many cool cars. Cars from the 1910-30s to NASCAR. Not many 60's muscle cars though. Staff were friendly and you just go at your own pace. No frills, just cars and stories about them.