Tags: Appalachia

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Wikipedia: Appalachia

NOTE: U.S. portion is considered the Appalachian Highlands and the Canadian portion is considered the Appalachian Uplands

Created/Accessed:

02-17-2026 14:37

Status: Adding & tagging counties as I find interesting stories for the vault!

Important Location(s):

Appalachian States (ARC Defined Region):

• Alabama: 37 counties in the northern part of the state.
• Georgia: 37 counties in the northern part of the state.
• Kentucky: 54 eastern and southern counties.
• Maryland: Allegany, Garrett, and Washington counties.
• Mississippi: 24 northeastern counties.
• New York: 14 counties, including areas around the Southern Tier.
• North Carolina: 29 western counties.
• Ohio: 32 southern and eastern counties.
• Pennsylvania: 52 counties, covering most of the state except for the southeast and northwest corners.
• South Carolina: 6 northwestern counties.
• Tennessee: 52 eastern and middle counties.
• Virginia: 25 counties and 8 independent cities in the southwestern part of the state.
• West Virginia: All 55 counties are within the region.

Notes & Quotes from Sources:

Counties in Appalachia

Alabama (37 counties): Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert, Coosa, Cullman, De Kalb, Elmore, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin, Hale, Jackson, Jefferson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Macon, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan, Pickens, Randolph, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, and Winston

Georgia (37 counties): Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Dade, Dawson, Douglas, Elbert, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Gordon, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Haralson, Hart, Heard, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Murray, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, Walker, White, and Whitfield

Kentucky (54 counties): Adair, Bath, Bell, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Casey, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cumberland, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Fleming, Floyd, Garrard, Green, Greenup, Harlan, Hart, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, McCreary, Madison, Magoffin, Martin, Menifee, Metcalfe, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Powell, Pulaski, Robertson, Rockcastle, Rowan, Russell, Wayne, Whitley, and Wolfe

Maryland (3 counties): Allegany, Garrett, and Washington

Mississippi (24 counties): Alcorn, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Itawamba, Kemper, Lee, Lowndes, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union, Webster, Winston, and Yalobusha

New York (14 counties): Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie*, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins

• Schoharie County is covered by two regional commissions but may only receive assistance from one commission in a given fiscal year. Schoharie County has elected not to be eligible for ARC assistance in FY 2026. If your proposed project includes Schoharie County, please coordinate with New York’s State Program Manager to discuss this matter further.

North Carolina (31 counties): Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Davie, Forsyth, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey

Ohio (32 counties): Adams, Ashtabula, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Carroll, Clermont, Columbiana, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Vinton, and Washington

Pennsylvania (52 counties): Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Bradford, Butler, Cambria, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lawrence, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, and Wyoming

South Carolina (7 counties): Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, and Union

Tennessee (52 counties): Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Cannon, Carter, Claiborne, Clay, Cocke, Coffee, Cumberland, De Kalb, Fentress, Franklin, Grainger, Greene, Grundy, Hamblen, Hamilton, Hancock, Hawkins, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Lewis, Loudon, McMinn, Macon, Marion, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Overton, Pickett, Polk, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Smith, Sullivan, Unicoi, Union, Van Buren, Warren, Washington, and White

Virginia (25 counties): Alleghany, Bath, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Henry, Highland, Lee, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe

The following independent cities in Virginia are also within the Appalachian Region and are merged with an adjacent or surrounding county for the purposes of data analysis and grant management: Bristol (Washington County), Buena Vista (Rockbridge County), Covington (Alleghany County), Galax (Carroll County), Lexington (Rockbridge County), Martinsville (Henry County), Norton (Wise County), and Radford (Montgomery County).

West Virginia (55 counties): Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood, and Wyoming

Canadian Appalachian Uplands

The Appalachian Uplands is one of the seven physiographic regions in Canada, 1distinguished by its topography and geology. The region includes southern Quebec, Gaspésie, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland. 1 This is the Canadian portion of the Appalachian Mountains. The United States equivalent portion is called the Appalachian Highlands.

Physiographic regions, subregions, and divisions

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The Geological Survey of Canada uses three levels of physiographic classification. The "region" is the highest level, which is equivalent to the "division" level in the United States. In the Appalachian Uplands, there is no second-level, which in Canada is the "subregion." There are 13 tertiary-level areas (called divisions in Canada) in the Appalachian Uplands region. 1

Notre-Dame Range, hills belonging to the Appalachian Mountains, Quebec, Canada

• Newfoundland contains the Newfoundland Highlands, Atlantic Uplands, and Central Lowlands
• Nova Scotia contains the Atlantic Uplands, Nova Scotia Uplands, and the Annapolis Lowlands
• New Brunswick contains the New Brunswick Highlands, the Chaleur Uplands, and the Maritime Plain
• Quebec contains the Notre-Dame Mountains, Eastern Quebec Uplands, Sutton Mountains, and Mégantic Hills

Features include Gros Morne National Park and the Newfoundland Highlands in Newfoundland, the Cobequid Mountains, Antigonish Highlands, Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia Uplands, and the Annapolis Lowlands in Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Highlands, Notre-Dame Mountains including the Chic-Chocs Mountains, Sutton Mountains, and Mégantic Hills in Quebec, and the Maritime Plain, "which stretches around the coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from the south shore of Chaleur Bay and includes Prince Edward Island and Îles-de-la-Madeleine." 1

Appalachian Uplands

The Appalachian Uplands extends from southern Quebec and Gaspésie to encompass New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland.

On the island of Newfoundland, the Appalachian Uplands comprises three highlands that form a group called the Newfoundland Highlands. They are rugged with steep slopes and elevations vary from 180 to 820 metres. On the east side, the Atlantic Uplands of Newfoundland lie between 180 and 300 metres in elevation, and the Newfoundland Central Lowland extends from sea level up to 150 metres. Its surface is gently rolling and generally underlain by glacial sediments.

Nova Scotia is divided into three highland areas, three uplands and several small lowlands. The Nova Scotia Highlands include the Cobequid Mountains in the west, the Antigonish Highlands in the centre and the Cape Breton Highlands to the northeast. South of these highlands lay the Nova Scotia Uplands and the Annapolis Lowlands.

New Brunswick comprises three large units: the New Brunswick Highlands; the Chaleur Uplands, which cross the Quebec–New Brunswick border; and the Maritime Plain, which stretches around the coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from the south shore of Chaleur Bay and includes Prince Edward Island and Îles-de-la-Madeleine.

In Quebec, the Chaleur Uplands are bounded on the north by the Notre-Dame Mountains, which extend from near Thetford Mines to Baie de Gaspé. In the Notre-Dame Mountains area, there are the Chic-Chocs Mountains which have the highest elevation at more than 1230 metres in the north. To the southwest, the summits are lower, like the areas of Mégantic Hills and Sutton Mountains, which merge with the Eastern Quebec Uplands. The Sutton Mountains are a continuation of the Green Mountains of Vermont; and the Mégantic Hills lie astride the Canada–United States boundary and are part of the larger White Mountains of the New England states.

The following photographs show examples of landscapes from the Appalachian Uplands.

Figure 28: Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador. This photograph, taken in Gros Morne National Park on Newfoundland, shows a wide U-shaped valley 23 that was formed by erosion from repeated advances of glaciers from the Newfoundland ice sheet.

Source: Geological Survey of Canada, photograph number 2002-089. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2005 and courtesy of Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada.

Figure 29: Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. This photograph, taken on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, shows the flat and virtually unmodified surface of the highlands, which contrasts with the branching network of river gorges that incise its margins.

Source: Geological Survey of Canada, photograph number 120182. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2005 and courtesy of Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada.