Lake Norman Map Art

Lake Norman is a man-made lake in North Carolina, about 15 miles north of Charlotte. Duke Energy built it between 1959 and 1964 while constructing Cowans Ford Dam, and it is the largest man-made body of fresh water entirely inside the state. It is named for Norman Atwater Cocke, a former Duke Power president, and is sometimes called the inland sea of North Carolina. The lake covers more than 50 square miles with 520 miles of shoreline and touches four counties: Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln and Mecklenburg. The Catawba River feeds it, and it drains south into Mountain Island Lake. Interstate 77 and Highway 150 both cross the water. Once a rural farming area, the shore has grown into a busy suburban corridor since I-77 was finished in the 1970s, and today people come for fishing, boating and Lake Norman State Park.