Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Cabarrus County is a in the  of North Carolina. In 2000, 131,063 people lived there. Its is Concord.

History
The county was formed on December 29, 1792 from Mecklenburg County. Located in the Piedmont, it was named after Stephen Cabarrus of Chowan County, speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons.

Catawba Indians were the primary inhabitants of the area until beginning about 1750, the county was settled mainly by immigrants: Germans on the eastern side and Scotch-Irish in the western area of the county. When it came time to choose a location for the county seat and county government, each ethnic group wanted the county seat located close to their populations and could not reach agreement on a site. Stephen Cabarrus wrote to the citizens pleading with them to come together in peace to choose a location for their county seat. A central area of the county was chosen in 1796 and aptly named Concord, a derivative of two French words "with" and "peace." Representative Paul Barringer introduced a bill into the state legislature to incorporate Concord; it passed on December 17, 1806. The town of Concord was begun on land owned by Samuel Huie and wife Jane Morrison Huie.

The first substantiated gold find in America was in 1799 by young Conrad Reed while playing in Little Meadow Creek, located on the Reed farm in southeastern Cabarrus County. According to research, Conrad's find was a gold chunk approximately the size of a shoe and weighing 17 pounds. His father John Reed took the nugget into Concord to a silversmith, who informed Reed that the rock did not have any value. The elder Reed returned home with it, holding it for three years until a trip in 1802 to Fayetteville, where he sold the "nugget" to a jeweler for $3.50. Over time John Reed learned that the jeweler sold the large nugget for several thousand dollars. Reed returned to Fayetteville insisting on more just compensation. This discovery and news of the sale spurred the beginning of gold mining in the area.

John Reed, or Johannes Rieth as he is known in records of the Staatsarchiv at, was one of thousands of brought over by British troops to fight against rebellious colonists in the American Revolution. Reed deserted, as did many other Hessians. He traveled from Georgia to North Carolina, where he settled in an ethnic German community sometime around 1787 and began farming.

Reed first developed on his property, then underground mining, and became wealthy from the gold. His facility became known as. Large amounts of gold were being discovered at the Reed Gold Mine and in other mines in the United States; these mine owners began to use their gold to create currency. In order for the government to retain control of the production of currency and keep a stabilized economic structure, President signed into legislation the authorization to create branches of the. The was built to handle the gold coming from the rich gold veins of North Carolina, including Reed's.

The Reed Gold Mine was designated a, as it was the first gold mine in the country. Gold was mined in North Carolina into the early 20th century. Today visitors at the site can explore some of the mine's reconstructed tunnels.

Agricultural and industrial development
Located in the Piedmont region, the county was developed largely for subsistence farming, but did have some cotton plantations. By 1860 the population was about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few. The first cotton mill was constructed as early as 1839. More mill development took place after the American Civil War, when railroads reached the region.

Among the owners of new mills in the area were men of the rising black middle-class of Wilmington, North Carolina, such as John C. Dancy (appointed as collector of customs at the port), and others. , a Concord African-American businessman, joined them in organizing Coleman Manufacturing Company in 1897, on a site about two miles from Concord. They built and operated what is believed to have been the first cotton mill in the nation to be owned by blacks. They wanted to promote economic security for people of color. was its first president. While blacks had been hired for tobacco manufacturing, they were generally excluded from white-owned textile mills.

The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, with white attacks on blacks, their homes and businesses, destroyed much of what the people had built there since the war. In 1900 Dancy was among more than 2000 blacks who left the city permanently after the riot, resulting in its becoming majority white. He moved to Washington, DC, where he was appointed as the federal Recorder of Deeds.

Agriculture has played an important part in the economic life of the county for over 200 years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles became a vital part of the local economy, especially in the northern portion of the county. Today, the local economy has a more varied base.

National Register of Historic Places
The old was finished in 1876. Recognized as significant in the 20th century, it was listed on the in 1974. The is located on the front lawn area.

Also listed on the NRHP is the, notable as the first cotton mill owned and operated by African Americans, and also for its decades-long record of industrial design in textile manufacturing, with numerous contributing structures built through the early 20th century.

Among other NRHP sites in Cabarrus County is the, located adjacent to Bethel United Methodist Church approximately one mile north of the historic crossroads (and railroad stop) of Cabarrus Station. The Arbor dates back to the early 1800s as a location for religious revival “camp meetings” and the current structure was built around 1878, and was in use through the 1920s.

Government
Cabarrus County is part of the local.

Schools
The runs all the public schools in the county except for parts of Kannapolis, which has.

Self-branded as the Center of American Motorsports, Cabarrus County is rich in NASCAR history.

Sports
The western part of the county is home to a large racing complex in Concord, including Charlotte Motor Speedway, which hosts three NASCAR Cup Series events a year, The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and zMAX Dragway, which now hosts the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series twice a year. (formerly Concord Motorsport Park), located southeast of Concord in Midland, hosts weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series races in the early spring through fall.

The county is also home to several major race shops, including Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Chip Ganassi Racing in Concord, Stewart-Haas Racing in Kannapolis, and JTG Daugherty Racing and Wood Brothers Racing in Harrisburg.

A state of the art and first of its kind, Windshear, opened July 18, 2008 in Concord. It offers aerodynamic testing facilities to NASCAR and Formula One racing teams and automobile manufacturers.

Connected counties
These counties are connected to Cabarrus County:
 * Rowan County, North Carolina - north
 * Stanly County, North Carolina - east
 * Union County, North Carolina - south
 * Mecklenburg County, North Carolina - west
 * Iredell County, North Carolina - northwest

Cities and towns
These cities and towns are in Cabarrus County:
 * Concord
 * Harrisburg
 * Kannapolis
 * Mount Pleasant
 * Midland

Other websites

 * Cabarrus County government official website
 * Cabarrus County official tourism website