Swain County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
6,640 ft 2,025 m5,250 ft 1,600 m4,560 ft 1,390 m3,170 ft 965 m1,780 ft 545 m1,090 ft 330 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
Swain County averages about 3,240 ft (990 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,090 ft on the west side to 6,640 ft on Kuwohi.
Average elevation
3,240 ft 990 m
all land inside the county
Highest
6,640 ft 2,025 m
on Kuwohi
Lowest
1,090 ft 330 m
on the west side
Swain County spans about 5,550 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 | 3,240 ft990 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Kuwohi (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 6,640 ft2,025 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the west side | 1,090 ft330 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
20 mi south to north through Bryson City.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 13,945 2024 est.
- Land area
- 527.7 sq mi + 12.5 sq mi water
- Density
- 26 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Blue Ridge
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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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
- Graham County2,840 ft
- Sevier County, TN1,980 ft
- Blount County, TN1,420 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in North Carolina6th highest of 100
- Counties in the United States344th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Kuwohi6,640 ft
- Mount Buckley6,560 ft
- Mount Collins6,180 ft
- Cataloochee Balsam5,940 ft
- Cheoah Bald5,050 ft
All 2 towns in Swain County by typical elevation
- Cherokee partly2,470 ft
- Bryson City1,870 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.