Chatham County, North Carolina

Chatham County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. In 2000, 49,329 people lived there. Now the population is more than 60,000. Its county seat is Pittsboro.

History
The county was made in 1771 from Orange County.

In 1907 parts of Chatham County and Moore County were combined to form Lee County.

Government
Chatham County is part of the regional Triangle J Council of Governments.

Schools
Chatham County has its own public school system for grades kindergarten to 12. Central Carolina Community College also has two campuses in the county.

Coal Mines
Chatham County has the only coal mines in North Carolina. Coal mining used to be very important to the county, but in the 1920s a bad accident in one of the mines killed many workers. By the 1940s all the mines had closed. Some people have tried to open the mines back up, but the mines are too dangerous. Right now none of the mines are open.

New Houses
Many builders are building new houses in Chatham County right now. Some people in the county do not like this because they do not want Chatham County to have a lot of people. A lot of people want to live in Chatham County because they do not have to pay as much tax as people in other North Carolina counties do. But other people think it is good that a lot of people want to live in the county because then the county will make more money from taxes.

Connected Counties

 * Orange County, North Carolina - north
 * Durham County, North Carolina - northeast
 * Wake County, North Carolina - east
 * Harnett County, North Carolina - southeast
 * Lee County, North Carolina - south
 * Moore County, North Carolina - southwest
 * Randolph County, North Carolina - west
 * Alamance County, North Carolina - northwest

Cities and Towns
These cities and towns are in Chatham County:
 * Fearrington
 * Goldston
 * Pittsboro
 * Siler City

Roads
These are the most important roads in Chatham County:
 * [[Image:US 64.svg|23px]] U.S. Highway 64
 * [[Image:US 421.svg|23px]] U.S. Highway 421
 * [[Image:US 15.svg|23px]] [[Image:US 501.svg|29px]] U.S. Highway 15-501

Other websites

 * Chatham County Government
 * Chatham County Travel Website
 * Chatham Journal Newspaper
 * Chatham Online Bulletin Board