Lowest Landlocked Elevation – US States

The analysis of landlocked national lowpoints amused me so much that I decided to extend the exercise. So I switched to individual states within the United States. Once again I found a perfectly matching Wikipedia page so I didn’t have to recreate my own. Behold: a List of U.S. states and territories by elevation.

Only two states even offered elevations below sea level, California and Louisiana, and both featured seacoasts. Thus, I only had to search for states with the smallest positive elevations

If the District of Columbia ever became a state it would lead the pack. Its lowpoint of a single foot occurred at a spot where the Potomac River exited the nation’s capital. However, setting that aside, I found three states with impressive lowpoints all falling below 100 feet (30 metres).


Arkansas

Ouachita River vista. Photo by Robert Nunnally; (CC BY 2.0)
Ouachita River

The delta of the Mississippi River drains an incredibly flat plain. However, it still surprised me that it extended all the way into Arkansas. It had the lowest elevation of all landlocked states.

Arkansas was a solid 200 miles (320 km.) from the nearest seacoast at the Gulf of Mexico. Yet it offered a lowpoint where the Ouachita River crossed from Arkansas into Louisiana at an elevation of only 55 ft. (17 m.). The Ouachita joined the Tensas River, forming the Black River. That later commingled with the Atchafalaya River and eventually intertwined with the Mississippi River. The whole mass of bayous, sloughs and waterways formed an immense tangled delta reaching impressively inland.

The Original Inhabitants

Native Americans thrived in the swamplands for hundreds of years during the Pre-Columbian period, building large settlements and ceremonial mounds.

“The major Indian tribes that lived along the OUACHITA were the Washita, Caddo, Osage, Tensas, Chickasaw and Choctaw… The Spanish explorer DeSoto recorded in 1540 the existence of an enormous mound built on the banks of the OUACHITA. This site was named ‘Anilco’, and was located at the present site of Jonesville, Louisiana. This mound was tragically destroyed when a bridge was built over the site in the 1930’s. This mound was one of the largest ever recorded in North America.”

Priceless cultural artifact or second-rate highway bridge? Apparently priorities differed in the 1930’s.

The actual Arkansas lowpoint (map) occurred at an interesting intersection for followers of modern geography, directly upon a county quadripoint. Four counties (Arkansas) / parishes (Louisiana) joined where the Ouachita River left Arkansas and entered Louisiana: Union County, AR; Ashley County, AR; Union Parish, LA and Morehouse Parish, LA. I referenced the two entities named Union previously in “Adjacent Counties, Same Name, Different States.”


Arizona

Well, Arizona also surprised me. Maybe it shouldn’t seem all that counterintuitive once I considered the situation some more. Arizona was such a large state and it seemed so far away from a seashore. Yet, if one looks at a map it becomes abundantly clear that its southwestern corner falls pretty close to the Gulf of California. One would have to travel through neighboring Mexico to accomplish that though. Perhaps that was why I tended to overlook it mentally. The quickest path to the Gulf followed the course of the Colorado River, making Arizona’s lowest elevation 72 ft. (22 m.) where it exited the state at San Luis.

Oddly, that hadn’t happened much in the last half century making the lowpoint a dry, empty riverbed instead. A series of state compacts, international treaties and dams strictly parceled the Colorado’s waters. So it flowed to variously prescribed residential and agricultural areas instead of the sea.

The final dam built on the river at a place straddling the U.S / Mexican border between Yuma and San Luis — the Morelos Dam (map) — took what little flow remained and channeled it into croplands in surrounding areas of Mexico.

Pulse Flow

The dam converted what used to be a wonderfully diversified estuary into just another patch of Sonoran desert sometime around 1950. Environmentalists on both sides of the border began to wonder what might happen if the Morelos Dam opened periodically. What if the Colorado River flowed naturally to the sea for limited times? Thus the notion of the “Pulse Flow” came to pass and it actually happened in March 2014:

“… officials released an experimental pulse of 105,000 acre-feet of water from the Morelos Dam on the United States-Mexico border, and on May 15 the river once again flowed into the sea. The eight-week water release, though small, was enough to cause a 43 percent increase in green vegetation in the wetted zone and a 23 percent increase along the river’s borders…”

Small changes make a big difference.


Vermont

Lake Champlain, VT. Photo by Matt Tillett; (CC BY 2.0)
Lake Champlain

All three of the landlocked states with elevations of less than a hundred feet completely fascinated me. Third on the list went to Vermont — literally the Green Mountain. So I would expect higher elevations rather than lower ones.

Certainly Vermont included impressive peaks within its boundaries although it also bordered on Lake Champlain (map). Its lowpoint coincided with the lake, a diminutive 95 ft. (29 m.) flowing into the St. Lawrence River and onward towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Lake Champlain served as an important transportation corridor during colonial times and the early days of an independent United States. Otherwise difficult overland travel took place on muddy, rutted roads. It was a lot easier to navigate a boat inland wherever that was possible instead of turning to horse and wagon. Lake Champlain became Vermont’s access to the outside world.

A Military Flashpoint

It was no wonder that the lake figured prominently in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Forts such as Ticonderoga and Crown Point appeared along its shorelines. British and American naval forces battled upon its waters. The United States fortified Lake Champlain’s shoreline even after the wars, including the infamous “Fort Blunder” placed on the wrong side of the border by mistake. Canals later connected the lake to the Hudson River watershed and the Erie Canal system. This created a vast superhighway over a large swath of the continental interior.

This was one of the more enjoyable article series I’ve written in awhile. Lowpoints seemed to offer more untold stories waiting to be discovered than highpoints.

Comments

3 responses to “Lowest Landlocked Elevation – US States”

  1. January First-of-May Avatar
    January First-of-May

    I figured out that you probably used an “elevation” list – as opposed to a “landlocked” list – because you said Arkansas instead of Pennsylvania.
    Pennsylvania, for the record, is usually said to be landlocked, but its lowpoint at the Delaware River is apparently at sea level (or at least close enough to it for the difference not to be reasonably measurable).
    I suppose it could be a matter of some debate as to whether this part of the Delaware River can be considered “sea coast” (if it is, of course, Pennsylvania technically won’t be landlocked at all).

  2. Peter Avatar

    Philadelphia is a major seaport, with no size restrictions on the ships that can use it, so I wouldn’t consider Pennsylvania to be landlocked.

  3. Rhodent Avatar
    Rhodent

    I think arguments could be made in either direction for Pennsylvania. On the one hand, it is generally regarded as having no coastline, and most if not all geographers that the Delaware Bay does not reach as far as Pennsylvania. On the other hand, the Delaware River is tidal as far upstream as Philadelphia. I personally consider Pennsylvania to be landlocked, but I certainly see the validity of the argument that it isn’t.

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