[5][6] European settlers entered the region in the late 17th century chiefly following Native American trading paths, and set up their farms in what they called the "Haw Old Fields," fertile ground previously tilled by the Sissipahaw.

Other legends say the name came from another local Native American word meaning "noisy river," or for the Alamanni region of Rhineland, Germany, where many of the early settlers came from.

[10] In the 1780s, the Occaneechi Native Americans returned to North Carolina from Virginia, this time settling in what is now Alamance County rather than their first location near Hillsborough.

By the 1840s, the textile industry was booming, and the railroad was being built through the area as a convenient link between Raleigh and Greensboro.

In March 1861, Alamance County residents voted overwhelmingly against North Carolina's secession from the Union, 1,114 to 254.

North Carolina was reluctant to join other Southern states in secession until the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861.

When Lincoln called up troops, Governor John Ellis replied, "I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war upon the liberties of a free people.

Alamance County briefly became a center of national attention when in 1870 Wyatt Outlaw, an African-American town commissioner in Graham, was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.

Outlaw's body was found hanging 30 yards from the courthouse, with a note pinned to his chest reading, "Beware!

The Grand Jury of Alamance County indicted 63 klansmen for felonies and 18 for the murder of Wyatt Outlaw.

During World War II, Fairchild Aircraft built airplanes at a plant on the eastern side of Burlington.

The USS Alamance, a Tolland-class attack cargo ship, was built during and served in and after World War II.

The county has seen significant business and industry growth, including the additions of the North Carolina Commerce Park and the North Carolina Industrial Center, as well as new retail opportunities near Interstates 85 and 40 on the eastern (Tanger Outlets) and western (University Commons and Alamance Crossing) sides of the county.

In 2012, the Department of Justice found the Alamance County Sheriff's Office to use discriminatory policing,[19] however the case was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas D. Schroeder, finding that the government failed to demonstrate that the ACSO had engaged in discriminatory policing.

[21] In October 2020, during a demonstration prior to the 2020 United States presidential election, Alamance County sheriff's deputies and Graham police used pepper spray against crowd members.

[22] Law enforcement reported that pepper spray had been deployed to disperse the crowd following an assault on an officer who was trying to shut down a generator the march organizers had brought, in violation of a signed agreement.

It has a general rolling terrain with the Cane Creek Mountains rising to over 970 ft (300 m)[25] in the south-central part of the county just north of Snow Camp.

Bass Mountain, one of the prominent hills in the range, is home to a world-renowned bluegrass music festival every year.

To the south there is the Snow Camp Outdoor Drama which has plays from late spring to early fall in the evenings.

Alamance County is also home to the Haw River Ballroom, a large music and arts venue in Saxapahaw.

Alamance County, Burlington, Graham, Elon, Haw River, Swepsonville, and Mebane all have small parks that are not listed here.

The Royals were rebranded as the Sock Puppets following the contraction and reorganization of minor league baseball prior to the 2021 season.

The Phoenix compete in the NCAA's Division I (Championship Subdivision in football) Colonial Athletic Association.

Intercollegiate sports include baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, and tennis for men, and basketball, cross-country, golf, indoor track, outdoor track, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball for women.

According to a 1975 study of the history of post offices in North Carolina by Treasure Index, Alamance County has 27 ghost towns that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

These towns and their post offices were either abandoned as organized settlements or absorbed into the larger communities that now make up Alamance County.