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.
Population over time
2 figuresChatham 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 220 | |
| 2020 | 193 | -27 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1958 USGS Au Train quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Marquette quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1960 USGS Marquette quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Marquette quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Marquette quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Munising quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
4 since 1996Regional 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 August 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Hiawatha National Forest | ROCK RIVER |
| 5 May 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Hiawatha National Forest | STRAITS LAKE |
| 19 May 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Hiawatha National Forest | MS |
| 19 May 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State Pit # 66 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 2001Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2018 | Flood | Chatham | $1,000 | A 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 2024 | Hail | Chatham | - | Image of half dollar sized hail in Chatham from a social media report. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Chatham | - | There were multiple pictures of quarter-sized hail and a half-dollar sized hail report from Chatham. |
| August 2013 | Hail | Chatham | - | Hail report near Chatham was received via WLUC-TV Facebook page. Time of report was estimated from radar. |
| August 2013 | Hail | Chatham | - | Penny-sized hail was reported near Chatham. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Chatham | - | Hail occurred approximately two miles north of Rumley. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chatham | - | One to two-inch diameter branches down. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Chatham | - | 1 inch hail. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Chatham | - | no account filed |
| July 2025 | Hail | Chatham | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eben Junction | 2.2 miles | 11 | |
| Slapneck | 2.3 miles | 11 | |
| Dixon | 4.2 miles | 11 | |
| Forest Lake | 5.0 miles | 11 | |
| Rumely | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Limestone | 6.0 miles | 11 | |
| Traunik | 6.4 miles | 11 | |
| Au Train | 7.5 miles | 11 |
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 Chatham | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2186760 | The 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.






