Gates County, North Carolina

Gates County is a small, rural county located in the northeast portion of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the border with Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,197. Its county seat is Gatesville.Gates County is included in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is part of the Albemarle Sound area of the Inner Banks.HistoryAs in other areas along the waterways, Native Americans had settled these lands for thousands of years, with different groups leaving and new ones migrating to settle again. They created settlements, increasingly permanent, along the Chowan River.At the time of European contact, the Chowanoke was the largest tribe in North Carolina of the many in the Algonquian language family and occupied most of the territory along the river. After suffering dramatic population decreases by the early 17th century due to European infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity, most survivors were pushed out by encroaching Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe.