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is a city in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. ''Reader's Digest
Morganton is one of the principal cities in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Near the city is Joara, a regional center of Mississippian culture, where the Spanish built Fort San Juan in 1567. It was the first European colonial settlement in the interior of the United States.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.23 square miles (47.0 km²), all of it land.