Tossing Apples to the clouds

  Maiden NC - Home to Apple Corp's half Million square foot - something?

Oh sure we could talk about what they will do exactly - how they will monetize - inside the structure. Just open any internet/software oriented blog for a while, likely you will find someone venturing a guess. I have no information on that...

...but what is this place; Maiden NC.

It sits close to the eastern edge of the Smokey Mountains, nearly the southern most range in the Appalachians.

One history tells us that this was the home of the Catawba ~ "From all accounts they were formerly the most populous and most important tribe in the Carolinas, excepting the Cherokee"

Next came the first wave of internal immigration in the new world with migration heavily from the southern parts of Pennsylvania in the 1780's. The town itself was apparently placed to support cotton mill operations.

When Apple looks around for local workers this mill legacy still exists with Eathan Allen Furniture being one of the largest employers in the county. The other major neighbor however may surprise some.

GETRAG Corporation Axles and PTUs (no idea what that is) is what they make.

Two hundred and twenty years after the first cotton mill, textiles still play a role in the lives of the people here.

What are the chances that in the year 2230 a data center will be running in the land of the Catawba?