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Chatham, Michigan

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1958 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Rock River Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49816. It stands on North Branch Slapneck Creek. The Survey maps it on the Chatham quadrangle. 193 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 876 feet above sea level.

Chatham within Alger County

Population over time

2 figures

Chatham fell from 220 to 193 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010220
2020193-27 (-12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

4 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Chatham between 1996 and 2014, burning about 1 acre in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Natural2
Debris and open burning1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
11 August 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreHiawatha National ForestROCK RIVER
5 May 2010Debris and open burningunder an acreHiawatha National ForestSTRAITS LAKE
19 May 1998Naturalunder an acreHiawatha National ForestMS
19 May 1996Naturalunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Alger County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Chatham: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
State Pit # 66Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Alger County

Storms near this place

10 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chatham in 10 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 8 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2018FloodChatham$1,000A spotter reported water over about 200 yards of Rock River Road north of Chatham due to more than two inches of heavy rain which fell in the previous 24 hours.
June 2024HailChatham-Image of half dollar sized hail in Chatham from a social media report.
June 2022HailChatham-There were multiple pictures of quarter-sized hail and a half-dollar sized hail report from Chatham.
August 2013HailChatham-Hail report near Chatham was received via WLUC-TV Facebook page. Time of report was estimated from radar.
August 2013HailChatham-Penny-sized hail was reported near Chatham.
June 2007HailChatham-Hail occurred approximately two miles north of Rumley.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindChatham-One to two-inch diameter branches down.
May 2001HailChatham-1 inch hail.
July 2025HailChatham-no account filed
July 2025HailChatham-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Alger County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Eben Junction2.2 miles11
Slapneck2.3 miles11
Dixon4.2 miles11
Forest Lake5.0 miles11
Rumely5.5 miles11
Limestone6.0 miles11
Traunik6.4 miles11
Au Train7.5 miles11

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on ChathamAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2186760The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1619481. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.