Jackson County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
6,400 ft 1,950 m5,260 ft 1,600 m4,680 ft 1,430 m3,540 ft 1,080 m2,400 ft 730 m1,820 ft 555 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
Jackson County averages about 3,380 ft (1,030 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,820 ft on the northwest side to 6,400 ft on Richland Balsam.
Average elevation
3,380 ft 1,030 m
all land inside the county
Highest
6,400 ft 1,950 m
on Richland Balsam
Lowest
1,820 ft 555 m
on the northwest side
Jackson County spans about 4,580 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 | 3,380 ft1,030 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Richland Balsam (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 6,400 ft1,950 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the northwest side | 1,820 ft555 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
21 mi west to east through Cullowhee.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 45,281 2024 est.
- Land area
- 491.1 sq mi + 3.8 sq mi water
- Density
- 92 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Blue Ridge
- Drains to
- Gulf of America 83%, Atlantic Ocean 17%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Haywood County3,590 ft
- Jackson County3,380 ft
- Swain County3,240 ft
- Macon County3,100 ft
- Transylvania County2,860 ft
- Oconee County, SC1,130 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina3rd highest of 100
- Counties in the United States324th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Richland Balsam6,400 ft
- Mount Lyn Lowry6,220 ft
- Yellow Face6,030 ft
- Rough Butt Bald5,950 ft
- Cowee Bald4,960 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.