Communities - Location & Topography

Dickenson County, with an area of 331 square miles, lies wholly in the Sandy Basin, a bowl-like depression in the Appalachian range of mountains spreading from the crest of Cumberland mountain southeastward across the narrow valleys of Pound, Cranesnest and McClure Rivers to the top of Sandy Ridge. It is bordered on the northwest by the State of Kentucky; on the northeast by Buchanan County; on the southeast by Russell County; and on the southwest by Wise County.

Elevations in general vary from 1,200 feet above sea level along the Pound River in the Northwestern part of the county to 3,137 feet at Jessee Gap on the northwest border.

Pine Mountain, the crest of which forms the Dickenson County Kentucky border, is the county’s most prominent topographic feature. Other ridges are: Sandy Ridge, which parallels the Dickenson and Russell County boundary, and the northerly-trending Big Ridge, which extends from Sandy Ridge and also serves to divide the Cranesnest and McClure Rivers.

The dramatic Breaks of Sandy is a Dickenson County topographic feature that must not escape mention, for it forms the deepest gorge in the United States east of the Mississippi River. The northerly flowing Russell Fork has carved itself into the sandstones and shale to a depth of nearly a thousand feet (305 M.) leaving nearly vertical walls.