| Extreme Points of the United States |
|
| Description | view trip reports |
Extreme points lie farther north, east, south, and west than any other point of a specific region. Here, we limit consideration to the contiguous 48 United States; the entire 50 states (so including Alaska and Hawaii); and all United States territory.
We also consider the lowest and highest elevation points to be extrema. An excellent reference with several tables and illustrations is available at wikipedia.org .
The 180th meridian, being at an arbitrarily selected location, poses certain issues for defining "easternmost" and "westernmost". This is especially true since Alaska crosses this meridian and hence contains land in the Eastern Hemisphere. We discount calling such land "easternmost" as a silly fiction generated by the date line's arbitrarily-selected location.
We define being east of a location if the shortest path, a great circle track, contains an east component, i.e. a true course on departure from 0° to 180°. A point is west of one's location if the great circle track has a true course on departure from 180° to 360°.
The following extreme points are abstracted from the above wikipedia page, and are reproduced here for the reader's convenience.
Coordinates use the NAD27 datum except where indicated by "datum uncertain" for certain extrema lying outside the contiguous 48 states. Here, the corresponding references do not specify the datum.
Please E-mail the webmaster with any corrections, comments, and updates.
Contiguous 48 United States
- Ballast Key, Florida (24.52° N, 81.965° W)
- Bodelteh Islands, Washington (48.17761° N, 124.76479° W)
The southernmost point on the mainland.
The southernmost land permanently above the waterline.
The easternmost land permanently above the waterline.
Sail Rock, just offshore, is occasionally underwater.
The westernmost point on the mainland.
The westernmost land permanently above the waterline.
The new NAVD88 vertical datum yields 14,505 feet.
1 Key West, Florida falsely bills itself as being the southernmost land in the forty-eight states.
50 United States
- Peaked Island, offshore from Cape Wrangell,
The easternmost land permanently above the waterline.
Sail Rock, just offshore, is occasionally underwater.
The westernmost point on the North American continent.
Attu Island, Alaska (52.92° N, 172.44° E) datum uncertain
Known also by its native name, "Denali".
All United States Territory
Known also by its native name, "Denali".
Northwest Angle Point Barrow (map only)
southernmost points (any type) - Cape Sable or Ballast Key, Florida;Cape Sable Ballast Key Ka Lae American Samoa (aerial image only)
easternmost points (either type) - West Quoddy Head, Maine and Point Udall, Virgin IslandsWest Quoddy Head Point Udall (aerial image only)
westernmost points (any type) - Cape Alava or Bodelteh Islands, Washington;Cape Alava Bodelteh Islands Udall Point (aerial image only)
Cape Prince of Wales (aerial image only) Peaked Island (aerial image only) photos
highest points (either type) - Mount Whitney, California and Mount McKinley, Alaska lowest point - Badwater Basin in Death Valley, Californiatopo chart / aerial image photo
Disclaimer
Attempting to reach some of the points listed in this web site can be dangerous, and could lead to accidents resulting in injury or death. Some of the summits lie in rugged and isolated regions, where even minor mishaps can escalate into a life threatening nike shox running crisis. Other locations lie on private property, military bases, and other areas where access is restricted. Trespassing in these areas can result in being arrested, shot at, or worse. Right of access to these areas is constantly changing, and access in the past does not guarantee present access. By use of this web page, the reader hereby releases the trip report authors, trip report compiler, and webmaster from liability for any injury, including but not limited to monetary loss, death, and other damages that might in any way be connected with this web site. FAIR WARNING: These are "armchair mountaineer" articles, an offering for amusement, not action. Many of these peaks are potentially life threatening, or are on private property. Adequate mountaineer training and/or owner's permission are required if you choose to pursue this list. The authors cited on this page accept no responsibility for injury, or any liability related to these route descriptions.| back to text-only home page | back to graphic home page |