Franklin County, VA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,560 ft 1,085 m2,840 ft 865 m2,480 ft 755 m1,750 ft 535 m1,030 ft 315 m670 ft 205 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
Franklin County averages about 1,210 ft (370 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 670 ft on the east side to 3,562 ft on Cahas Mountain.
Average elevation
1,210 ft 370 m
all land inside the county
Highest
3,562 ft 1,086 m
on Cahas Mountain
Lowest
670 ft 205 m
on the east side
Franklin County spans about 2,890 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 | 1,210 ft370 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Cahas Mountain (NGS survey height) | 3,562 ft1,086 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the east side | 670 ft205 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
29 mi west to east through Rocky Mount.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Virginia, United States
- Population
- 55,637 2024 est.
- Land area
- 690.6 sq mi + 21.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 81 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Piedmont 60%, Blue Ridge 40%
- Drains to
- Atlantic Ocean
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Floyd County2,590 ft
- Roanoke County1,740 ft
- Patrick County1,590 ft
- Franklin County1,210 ft
- Bedford County1,060 ft
- Henry County920 ft
- Pittsylvania County700 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Virginia30th highest of 94
- Counties in the United States1,100th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Cahas Mountain3,562 ft
- Bull Run Knob3,190 ft
- Murray Knob2,280 ft
- Lynville Mountain2,230 ft
- Cooks Knob2,180 ft
All 8 towns in Franklin County by typical elevation
- Ferrum1,380 ft
- Boones Mill1,200 ft
- Henry Fork1,140 ft
- Rocky Mount1,130 ft
- Penhook870 ft
- Union Hall870 ft
- Westlake Corner860 ft
- North Shore850 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.