The McCaysville plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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McCaysville’s center stands about 1,640 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,470 ft to 1,870 ft, a difference of 400 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Frog Mountain, about 4,190 ft, 9 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Metagraywacke/ Mica Schist-Quartzite/ Amphibolite (metagraywacke, mica-schist, quartzite), from the Precambrian to Paleozoic.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 9×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist, quartzite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 12 mi of the line.
Metasandstone, metagraywacke, metasiltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Slate. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Graywacke. Age: Precambrian. About 2 mi of the line.
Slate, quartzite, conglomerate. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in McCaysville reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Toccoa, the Ocoee, the Hiwassee, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,590 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Guntersville Lake, White Lake (historical), Pickwick Lake and Cummings Lake.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of McCaysville; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
