Rutherford County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,960 ft 1,210 m3,140 ft 955 m2,720 ft 830 m1,900 ft 580 m1,080 ft 330 m660 ft 200 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
Rutherford County averages about 1,120 ft (340 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 660 ft on the southeast side to 3,962 ft on Sugarloaf Mountain.
Average elevation
1,120 ft 340 m
all land inside the county
Highest
3,962 ft 1,208 m
on Sugarloaf Mountain
Lowest
660 ft 200 m
on the southeast side
Rutherford County spans about 3,300 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 | 1,120 ft340 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Sugarloaf Mountain (NGS survey height) | 3,962 ft1,208 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 660 ft200 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
25 mi south to north through Forest City.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 65,587 2024 est.
- Land area
- 565.4 sq mi + 1.8 sq mi water
- Density
- 116 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Piedmont 78%, Blue Ridge 22%
- Drains to
- Atlantic Ocean
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Buncombe County2,690 ft
- Henderson County2,430 ft
- McDowell County1,860 ft
- Burke County1,490 ft
- Polk County1,220 ft
- Rutherford County1,120 ft
- Cleveland County900 ft
- Spartanburg County, SC780 ft
- Cherokee County, SC690 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina25th highest of 100
- Counties in the United States1,213th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Rumbling Bald Mountain3,820 ft
- Stone Mountain, Rutherford County3,600 ft
- Cedar Knob, Rutherford County3,340 ft
- Roaringrock Mountain3,190 ft
- Youngs Mountain2,712 ft
All 11 towns in Rutherford County by typical elevation
- Lake Lure1,200 ft
- Chimney Rock Village1,140 ft
- Spindale1,040 ft
- Ellenboro1,010 ft
- Ruth1,000 ft
- Forest City980 ft
- Rutherfordton960 ft
- Bostic920 ft
- Caroleen870 ft
- Cliffside810 ft
- Henrietta780 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.