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Geographic Centers

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Because there is no generally accepted definition of a geographic center and no completely satisfactory method of determining it, there may be as many geographic centers of a State or county as there are definitions of the term.

The geographic center of an area may be defined as the center of gravity of the surface, or that point on which the surface of an area would balance if it were a plane of uniform thickness.

Curvature of the Earth, large bodies of water, irregular surfaces, and other factors affect the determination of center of gravity.

In determining the centers of the States, islands adjacent to their coastlines and large bodies of water were excluded.

The geographic centers and positions listed below should be considered as approximations.

 

StateCountyLocality
AlabamaChilton12 miles southwest of Clanton
Alaska63°50' N., 152°00' W., 60 miles northwest of Mount McKinley
ArizonaYavapai55 miles east-southeast of Prescott
ArkansasPulaski12 miles northwest of Little Rock
CaliforniaMadera38 miles east of Madera
ColoradoPark30 miles northwest of Pikes Peak
ConnecticutHartfordAt East Berlin
DelawareKent11 miles south of Dover
District of ColumbiaNANear Fourth and L Streets N.W.
FloridaHernando12 miles north-northwest of Brooksville
GeorgiaTwiggs18 miles southeast of Macon
HawaiiHawaii20°15' N., 156°20' W., off Maui Island
IdahoCusterAt Custer, southwest of Challis
IllinoisLogan28 miles northeast of Springfield
IndianaBoone14 miles north-northwest of Indianapolis
IowaStory5 miles northeast of Ames
KansasBarton15 miles northeast of Great Bend
KentuckyMarion3 miles north-northwest of Lebanon
LouisianaAvoyelles3 miles southeast of Marksville
MainePiscataquis18 miles north of Dover
MarylandPrince Georges4 1/2 miles northwest of Davidsonville
MassachusettsWorcesterNorth part of City of Worcester
MichiganWexford5 miles north-northwest of Cadillac
MinnesotaCrow Wing10 miles southwest of Brainerd
MississippiLeake9 miles west-northwest of Carthage
MissouriMiller20 miles southwest of Jefferson City
MontanaFergus11 miles west of Lewistown
NebraskaCuster10 miles northwest of Broken Bow
NevadaLander26 miles southeast of Austin
New HampshireBelknap3 miles east of Ashland
New JerseyMercer5 miles southeast of Trenton
New MexicoTorrance12 miles south-southwest of Willard
New YorkMadison12 miles south of Oneida and 26 miles southwest of Utica
North CarolinaChatham10 miles northwest of Sanford
North DakotaSheridan5 miles southwest of McClusky
OhioDelaware25 miles north-northeast of Columbus
OklahomaOklahoma8 miles north of Oklahoma City
OregonCrook25 miles south-southeast of Prineville
PennsylvaniaCentre2 1/2 miles southwest of Bellefonte
Rhode IslandKent1 mile south-southwest of Crompton
South CarolinaRichland13 miles southeast of Columbia
South DakotaHughes8 miles northeast of Pierre
TennesseeRutherford5 miles northeast of Murfreesboro
TexasMcCulloch15 miles northeast of Brady
UtahSanpete3 miles north of Manti
VermontWashington3 miles east of Roxbury
VirginiaBuckingham5 miles southwest of Buckingham
WashingtonChelan10 miles west-southwest of Wenatchee
West VirginiaBraxton4 miles east of Sutton
WisconsinWood9 miles southeast of Marshfield
WyomingFremont58 miles east-northeast of Lander
Geographic AreaLocalityLatitude
(N)
Longitude
(W.)
Conterminous United States
(48 States)
Near Lebanon, Smith County, Kansas39°50'98°35'
Continental United States
(49 States)
Near Castle Rock, Butte County, South Dakota44°59'103°38'
The United States
(50 States)
West of Castle Rock, Butte County, South Dakota44°58'103°46'
North American Continent6 miles west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota48°10'100°10'

No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of either the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent. However, a monument was erected in Lebanon, Kansas, by a group of citizens who hired engineers to determine the position of the "geographic center" of the United States.

Sometimes confused with geographic center of the United States is the triangulation station "Meades Ranch," located at latitude 39°13'26.686" North and longitude 98°32'30.506" West, about 12 miles north of Lucas, Kansas. This was the primary reference point for the North American Datum of 1927, the standard on which all the latitude and longitude lines for North America were based. This datum is being replaced by the North American Datum of 1983, which is not hinged to a single point of reference.

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