Chatham

History

The first settler came to Chatham in 1896, when the Munising Railway Company (later Lake Superior and Ishpeming) established a line through the town. The railroad company, along with the lumber company Sutherland Innis, platted a village where the railroad intersected the township road. Logging was the major economic activity in the area throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Sutherland Innis, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, Northwestern Cooperage and Lumber Company (Buckeye Company) and T.G. Sullivan having camps scattered throughout the area.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land. This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Chatham has a humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  2,784
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,747
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,587
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,556
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  1,406
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  1,365
• American herring gull, Smithsonian Gull

  Larus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 · Aves
  1,275
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,160

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2021-06-02
  11 km S of West Ishpeming, Michigan