Tennessee county high points
★ clickable Google map
county elevation landmark
Anderson 3529' Cross Mtn
Bedford 1357' Bedford
Benton 680' Round Top
Bledsoe 2680' Holloway Ridge
Blount 5527' Thunderhead
Bradley 1495' Ooltewah Tower
Campbell 3534' Cross Mtn
Cannon 2095' Short Mtn
Carroll 711' Maple Cr Tower
Carter 6285' Roan High Knob
Cheatham 900' Cheatham
Chester 740' Sand Mtn
Claiborne 3200' Bryson Mtn
Clay 1410' Pilot Knob
Cocke 6370' Old Black
Coffee 2027' Henry Cove
Crockett 484' Broadview
Cumberland 3048' Hinch Mtn
Davidson 1160' Davidson
Decatur 708' Carmel
DeKalb 1220' DeKalb
Dickson 960' Pond Reset
Dyer 515' Lenox S or 492
Fayette 677' Gordon Hill
Fentress 1872' Clarkrange 2
Franklin 2039' Sewanee
Gibson 574' Medina
Giles 1170' Parish Hollow
Grainger 2534' Clinch Mtn
Greene 4846' Gravel Knob
Grundy 2384' Lockhart Tower sw
Hamblen 1952' Crockett Ridge
Hamilton 2153' Lookout Mtn
Hancock 2630' Clinch Mtn
Hardeman 694' Hickory Valley
Hardin 845' Hardin
Hawkins 3118' Chimney Top Mtn
Haywood 500' Sammons Cemetery
Henderson 708' Life
Henry 653' Old Anitoch W
Hickman 980' Bon Aqua Tower
Houston 865' Van Hook
Humphreys 889' Dickhum nc
Jackson 1132' Antioch
Jefferson 3629' English Mtn
Johnson 5574' Snake Mtn
Knox 2091' House Mtn
Lake 325' Cates
Lauderdale 527' Dry Hill
Lawrence 1102' Lawrence
Lewis 1075' Lewis
Lincoln 1500' Stovall Mtn
Loudon 1313' Alexander Knob
Macon 1100' Russell Hill
Madison 664' Madison
Marion 2386' county line
Marshall 1289' Neil Gap
Maury 1176' Flanigan Hill
McMinn 2347' Starr Mtn
McNairy 688' Mt Peter
Meigs 1296' McMinn Ridge
Monroe 5470' Haw Knob
Montgomery 812' Marion
Moore 1267' Warren Cem
Morgan 3340' Big Fodderstack
Obion 551' Old Fremont
Overton 2025' Hampton Mtn
Perry 984' Matheny Camp
Pickett 1790' Golman Mtn
Polk 4215' Big Frog
Putnam 2060' Putnam
Rhea 2040' Rhea
Roane 2036' Mt Roosevelt
Robertson 930' Water Tower
Rutherford 1366' Harrold Cem
Scott 3259' Burge Mtn
Sequatchie 2394' Henson
Sevier 6643' Clingmans Dome
Shelby 432' eads
Smith 1255' Walnut Knob
Stewart 771' French Hollow
Sullivan 4309' Holston High Point
Sumner 1085' Wolf Hill
Tipton 458' Munford
Trousdale 1104' Trousdale
Unicoi 5516' Big Bald
Union 2312' Signal Point
VanBuren 2142' Smartt Mtn
Warren 1980' Warren
Washington 4520' Pinnacle Mtn
Wayne 1086' McCall
Weakley 600' Weakley
White 2010' Chestnut Mtn
Williamson 1253' Pull Tight
Wilson 1363' Wilson
Source: cohp.org and special help from Andy Martin.
sorted by elevation or full list
Waypoints: cohp.gpx or cohp.mxf
send waypoints to Garmin GPS
The table locates the highest point from USGS DEM data for each of Tennessee's 95 counties. The original data was based on descriptions from Andy Martin's book County High Points (10,500+ highpoint contours in 3,140 counties of the 50 states) and cohp.org. Andy's "analog" data, based on visual inspection of the contour lines of the 7.5 minute USGS topo quadrangles, often has multiple high points for a single county. 53 of the 95 counties had multiple (261) high point candidates. (See table with all candidates.)

In the table, click on the county name to view the Google map and get a list of maps for that point. At the bottom of the table are waypoint files for uploading to your GPS. Latitude and longitude are in the WGS84 datum and extrapolated from USGS 7.5' topo maps or provided by the DEM data.

digitial elevation data discussion ...
White county has 26 possible high points based on contours of the DeRossett quadrangle. 
Andy writes:

White   spot elevation 2 miles east of DeRossett        2,009   DeRossett
        16 areas within 2 miles of 2009 spot elevation  2,000+  DeRossett
        9 areas within 1 1/4 miles of Stringtown        2,000+  DeRossett
We have used 10m USGS/NASA digital elevation data (quad/UTM DEMs or better seamless server) to resolve the multi high point counties. For White county, the 10m DEM shows the high point (35.87875 -85.31523) at 2010'. (See Google map with DEM grid over candidates -- zoom out to see all areas.) Another candidate, was the contour with the 2009' spot elevation, but the DEM data reported only 2005.9 for the high point in that contour.

As another example, see the 10m DEM grid over the two candidate areas for Sullivan county. The Rutherford county high points illustrate points on the county line -- digital high point 1366.8' near Brown Cemetery. Or is that in the adjacent county, how accurate is the line on the topo map? The 10m DEM high point might actually be 1366.7' near Harrold Cemetery. From the 2004 LiDAR survey of Rutherford county, the high point is 1366' at Harrold Cemetery 35.71839,-86.23124. The 10m DEM data revealed a high point (35.21757 -89.7475) for Shelby county that was not on Andy's list -- and at 436'. Tom Owen reports this is a man-made (overpass), so we have not listed it as the high point. On the other hand, we did find some bad DEM (or topo?) data in the Dyersburg quad in Dyer county, TN. Topo map has a couple of 500 and 510 contours and one 515 spot elevation. The max elevation from the 10m DEM for the quad is only 476' (at the 515 spot elevation). See visual evidence. The DEM data from seamless server has the spot elevation at 492'. Looking at the satellite image, it's possible the high point has been bull-dozed down.

Henry and Lake county had no quad-based 10m DEM data for the areas of interest, but USGS seamless server had 3m DEM data for both Henry and Lake county. (Example: Lake County, view the map, and see the new HP is the southwest cluster of red +'s. If you zoom in and switch to satellite view, you'll see they probably built a hill for the water tank!) This 3m data is based on LiDAR (see bullet list below), but LiDAR elevation data for TN is presently only available for a few areas: Rutherford county (2004), Hamilton County, Davidson County, City of Franklin, Smoky Mountain, along the Mississippi and the NC boundary (see map). TN GIS in 2011 developed a LiDAR business plan and technical specs for conducting TN LiDAR survey (18 cm veritcal RMSE) at $10.4 million (2014-2018).

Thunderhead Mountain, Blount County high point, has a USGS benchmark disk that reports elevation of 5527' (no USGS datasheet?). The USGS DEM data lists the Thunderhead high point as 5533.7' at 35.56862,-83.70622. The recent NC LiDAR survey reports high point of 5524.75' at 35.56862,-83.70622 (bare earth).

SRTM data (30m) is also available from earthexplorer.usgs.gov and is more recent (2000), but is based on "first-return" data and may have inaccuracies. (Example: cohp'ers visiting Bryson Mtn (Claiborne county) noted that summit (3200') had been reduced by stripmining. Neither the 30m or 10m DEM data revealed this, but the SRTM data did (3117'), see map or use the track elevation profile on the cohp google map.) I am now using the seamless server for the source of elevation data. Also Google Earth seems to have fairly accurate elevation data (10m DEM or 30m SRTM?), and we have a coarse (30m SRTM) elevation profile tool on our Google high points map along with 10m (and in some cases 3m LiDAR) spot elevations.

Sevier county has the maximum elevation differential -- Clingmans Dome (6643') to the French Broad River (850'). The highest point in TN is Clingmans Dome at 6,643', and the lowest point is 178' along the Mississippi. (Elevation profile from Memphis to Clingman's Dome.) The Tennessee county high points have one "twofer", a single high point that serves two counties: Marion and Sequatchie at Lockhart. Anderson and Campbell county mostly share a high point, though the Cross Mountain benchmark (high point) is in Campbell county. Here is a nice article from the Tennessee Conservationist magazine on Tennessee's high points.

For reference, here are Andy's original TN county high point areas, courtesy of Tom Owen, and on Google map (includes new additions in Shelby and Lake County), and tnahps.gpx and tnahps.kmz. Andy has a demo Google map for various US county high points, includes gpx and kml data and link to trip reports, derived from Adam's cohp.org.

 
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visits since 12/10/04    Tom Dunigan -- revised Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:36:37 -0400