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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Lake Norman

Man-made lake in North Carolina, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Lake Norman is an artificial fresh water lake located in southwestern North Carolina, approximately 15 miles north of Charlotte. Created between 1959 and 1964 as part of the construction of the Cowans Ford Dam by Duke Energy, it is the largest man-made body of fresh water located entirely within the state. The lake is named after former Duke Power president Norman Atwater Cocke.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lake Norman” is man-made lake in North Carolina, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lake, Norman and Man-made, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1959, 1964—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Lake, Norman and Man-made is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “man-made lake in North Carolina, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1959 and 1964.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lake Norman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lake Norman primary sources, Lake Norman archive and Lake research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lake Norman”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lake Norman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.