DURHAM COUNTY

Durham was formed in 1881 from Orange and Wake. It was named for the city of Durham which was named in honor of Dr. Bartlett Snipes Durham who donated the land on which the railroad station was located. The building of the railroad station was the beginning of the town of Durham. It is in the central section of the State and bounded by Wake, Chatham. Orange, Person, and Granville counties. The present land area is 290.32 square miles. The population from the 2010 Census was 267,587. Of that population, 124,274 were white, 101,577 were black or African American, 1,339 were American Indian, 12,278 were Asian, 172 were Pacific Islander and 21,094 were of a different race. Another 6,853 were reported to be of two or more races and 36,077 were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Durham, incorporated in 1866 as the Town of Durham in Orange County, is the county seat.

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Parts of Durham County are in the Neuse River Basin and parts are in the Cape Fear River Basin. It is located in the Piedmont region of the state.

References:

"American Factfinder." 2011. U. S. Census Bureau. Online at http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Accessed 3/3/2011.

Corbitt, David L. 2000. The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. Sixth printing. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History.

Powell, William Stevens, and Michael R. Hill. 2010. The North Carolina gazetteer: a dictionary of Tar Heel places and their history. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Additional resources:

North Carolina Digital Collections (Government & Heritage Library and NC State Archives)

NC LIVE resources

NC Natural Heritage Program database

WorldCat (Searches numerous library catalogs)