Harlan County, KY Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
4,140 ft 1,260 m3,370 ft 1,030 m2,990 ft 910 m2,220 ft 675 m1,450 ft 445 m1,070 ft 325 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- County area
- Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Harlan County averages about 2,140 ft (650 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,070 ft on the west side to 4,139 ft on Black Mountain.
Average elevation
2,140 ft 650 m
all land inside the county
Highest
4,139 ft 1,262 m
on Black Mountain
Lowest
1,070 ft 325 m
on the west side
Harlan County spans about 3,070 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 2,140 ft650 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Black Mountain (NGS survey height) | 4,139 ft1,262 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the west side | 1,070 ft325 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
23 mi west to east through Harlan.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Kentucky, United States
- Population
- 25,052 2024 est.
- Land area
- 465.8 sq mi + 2.3 sq mi water
- Density
- 54 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Appalachian Plateaus 89%, Valley and Ridge 11%
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Wise County, VA2,320 ft
- Harlan County2,140 ft
- Lee County, VA1,760 ft
- Letcher County1,740 ft
- Bell County1,690 ft
- Leslie County1,480 ft
- Perry County1,320 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Kentuckyhighest of 119
- Counties in the United States578th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Black Mountain4,139 ft
- Potato Hill, Harlan County3,690 ft
- White Rocks3,380 ft
- Kitts Knob3,350 ft
- Joe Knob3,350 ft
All 14 towns in Harlan County by typical elevation
- Lynch1,810 ft
- Kenvir1,640 ft
- Cawood1,620 ft
- Benham1,580 ft
- Cumberland1,510 ft
- Ages1,420 ft
- South Wallins1,370 ft
- Evarts1,320 ft
- Pathfork1,250 ft
- Coxton1,230 ft
- Harlan1,220 ft
- Wallins Creek1,180 ft
- Loyall1,170 ft
- Coldiron1,120 ft
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.