Chatham, Massachusetts 1.35

Chatham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. First settled by the English in 1664, the township was originally called Monomoit based on the indigenous population's term for the region. The population was 6,125 at the 2010 census. Chatham is home to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, located on Monomoy Island,For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Chatham, please see the articles on Chatham (CDP) and West Chatham.HistoryNative American tribes who lived in the area before European colonization included the Nauset, specifically the Manomoy or Monomoy people. The expansive lands over which they roamed were known to them as Manamoyik or Monomoit. Explorer Samuel de Champlain landed here in October 1606 at a place he christened "Port Fortuné", where he contacted (and skirmished with) the Nauset. Twelve years later another group of Europeans gave it the name "Sutcliffe's Inlets". Neither name stuck, and the location was not permanently occupied by Europeans until English settlers reached Monomoit in 1664. The town was incorporated on June 11, 1712, at which point it was renamed after Chatham, Kent, England. Its territory expanded with the annexation of Strong Island and its vicinity on February 7, 1797.