Geographic center of the United States
Central location of the 48 or 50 states
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Key Takeaways
- The geographic center of the United States is a point approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota at 44°58′2.
- It has been regarded as such by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the U.
- Overview This is distinct from the contiguous geographic center, which has not changed since the 1912 admissions of New Mexico and Arizona to the 48 contiguous United States, and falls near the town of Lebanon, Kansas.
- According to the NGS data sheet, the actual marker is "set in an irregular mass of concrete 36 inches below the surface of the ground.
The geographic center of the United States is a point approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota at 44°58′2.07622″N 103°46′17.60283″W. It has been regarded as such by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) since the additions of Alaska and Hawaii to the United States in 1959.
Overview
This is distinct from the contiguous geographic center, which has not changed since the 1912 admissions of New Mexico and Arizona to the 48 contiguous United States, and falls near the town of Lebanon, Kansas. This served as the overall geographic center of the United States for 47 years, until the 1959 admissions of Alaska and Hawaii moved the geographic center of the overall United States approximately 550 miles (885 km) northwest by north.
While any measurement of the exact center of a land mass will always be imprecise due to changing shorelines and other factors, the NGS coordinates identify the center of the fifty states as an uninhabited parcel of private pastureland approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the cornerpoint where the South Dakota–Wyoming–Montana borders meet. According to the NGS data sheet, the actual marker is "set in an irregular mass of concrete 36 inches below the surface of the ground."
For public commemoration, a nearby proxy marker is located in a park in Belle Fourche, where one will find a flag atop a small concrete slab bearing a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Reference Marker.
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