The Franklin 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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Franklin’s center stands about 1,810 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,600 ft to 3,280 ft, a difference of 1,680 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Spruce Knob, about 4,870 ft, 11 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Oriskany Sandstone and Huntersville Chert (sandstone, chert), from the Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old.
The section below crosses 16 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, chert. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 10 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Franklin reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the South Branch Potomac and the Potomac: about 400 river miles.
290 miles of the trip are on the Potomac.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Franklin; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
