Long before Lake Norman covered thousands of acres of the Carolina Piedmont, the Catawba River flowed untamed through a landscape of farms, forests and small communities. It was a river that shaped life in North Carolina. Families depended on its waters, mills harnessed its power, and towns grew along its banks. But the Catawba was also a river to be respected. Those who lived near it understood heavy rains could quickly transform the peaceful waterway into a dangerous force. Even so, nothing could have prepared them for the events of July 1916, when the river unleashed a fury unlike anything <a href="https://www.lakenormanpublications.com/?post_type=oht_article&p=252249">[…]</a>