24 Hour Read-A-Thon: Hour 15 Mini-Challenge

I’m on a roll. Dewey’s just posted a mini-challenge for hour 15 and this will force me to choose my next book. Dewey writes:

This hour’s mini-challenge should be easy enough for anyone interested in a short break. Where is your current book set? If it’s a real place, go to wikipedia and find five interesting facts about the place and post about it in your blog. If it’s an invented place, you may actually still find it at wikipedia, depending on the book. But if you can’t, then tell us some interesting facts about it that you picked up from the story itself.

I’m going to start reading Down River, by John Hart (which is this year’s Edgar Winner). My hope is that it will be fast paced and thrilling. Anything to keep my eyes open! The novel is set in Rowan County, North Carolina. Here are five facts about that setting (from Wikipedia):

1. The County was named after Matthew Rowan – the acting Governor from 1753-1754
2. Current US Senator Elizabeth Dole is from Salisbury (located in Rowan County)
3. The median household income as of 2000 was $37,494
4. The county’s total area is 524 square miles of which only 2.4% is water
5. In 2000 it boasted a population of 130,340