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largest counties by land area

colin

By colin
in The Coffee House

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Aessotariq Burg

Aessotariq

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Here's a list I put together from Census data. It includes 10 Alaska boroughs, which are county-equivalents, the major difference being that not all of Alaska lies within a borough, unlike most states which are entirely covered in counties. Plus boroughs don't really function like counties in other states. There are 110 entries in this list.

[u][b][font=Tahoma]110 Largest counties and county-equivalents by land area[/b][/font][/u]

North Slope Borough AK 88,817.12

Northwest Arctic Borough AK 35,898.34

Matanuska-Susitna Borough AK 24,681.54

Lake and Peninsula Borough AK 23,781.96

San Bernardino County CA 20,052.50

Coconino County AZ 18,617.42

Nye County NV 18,146.66

Elko County NV 17,179.03

Kenai Peninsula Borough AK 16,013.26

Mohave County AZ 13,311.64

Denali Borough AK 12,749.65

Apache County AZ 11,204.88

Lincoln County NV 10,633.61

Sweetwater County WY 10,425.30

Inyo County CA 10,203.10

Harney County OR 10,134.33

Navajo County AZ 9,953.18

Malheur County OR 9,887.09

Humboldt County NV 9,647.91

Maricopa County AZ 9,203.14

Pima County AZ 9,186.27

Fremont County WY 9,182.27

White Pine County NV 8,875.98

Idaho County ID 8,484.88

Kern County CA 8,140.96

Lake County OR 8,135.75

Yavapai County AZ 8,123.30

Clark County NV 7,910.34

Carbon County WY 7,896.14

San Juan County UT 7,820.18

Owyhee County ID 7,677.98

Yakutat City and Borough AK 7,650.46

Fairbanks North Star Borough AK 7,366.24

Riverside County CA 7,207.37

Aleutians East Borough AK 6,988.14

Park County WY 6,942.39

Tooele County UT 6,930.35

Catron County NM 6,927.81

Aroostook County ME 6,671.54

Socorro County NM 6,646.40

Otero County NM 6,626.50

Millard County UT 6,589.13

Kodiak Island Borough AK 6,559.85

Washoe County NV 6,342.27

Siskiyou County CA 6,286.78

St. Louis County MN 6,225.16

Brewster County TX 6,192.61

Cochise County AZ 6,169.45

Chaves County NM 6,070.86

Pershing County NV 6,036.56

Fresno County CA 5,962.73

Cherry County NE 5,960.52

Klamath County OR 5,944.19

Rio Arriba County NM 5,857.63

Box Elder County UT 5,723.34

Beaverhead County MT 5,542.31

Yuma County AZ 5,514.09

San Juan County NM 5,514.02

Lander County NV 5,493.63

McKinley County NM 5,448.72

Pinal County AZ 5,369.59

Natrona County WY 5,339.88

Okanogan County WA 5,268.07

Garfield County UT 5,174.22

Phillips County MT 5,139.57

Flathead County MT 5,098.34

Douglas County OR 5,036.62

Rosebud County MT 5,012.37

Big Horn County MT 4,994.81

Churchill County NV 4,929.08

Custer County ID 4,925.45

Valley County MT 4,921.00

Sublette County WY 4,882.57

Lincoln County NM 4,830.97

Tulare County CA 4,823.97

Campbell County WY 4,796.76

Las Animas County CO 4,772.63

Gila County AZ 4,767.70

Pecos County TX 4,763.66

Moffat County CO 4,742.25

San Miguel County NM 4,717.04

Garfield County MT 4,668.06

Graham County AZ 4,629.32

Hudspeth County TX 4,571.00

Lemhi County ID 4,564.16

Lassen County CA 4,557.27

Lane County OR 4,554.00

Cibola County NM 4,539.21

Grant County OR 4,528.60

La Paz County AZ 4,499.95

Uintah County UT 4,477.07

Emery County UT 4,451.85

Lea County NM 4,392.96

Fergus County MT 4,339.17

Yakima County WA 4,296.23

Albany County WY 4,272.75

Converse County WY 4,254.72

Blaine County MT 4,226.18

San Diego County CA 4,199.89

Eddy County NM 4,182.02

Sierra County NM 4,180.23

Eureka County NV 4,175.68

Imperial County CA 4,174.73

Johnson County WY 4,166.28

Lincoln County WY 4,069.09

Los Angeles County CA 4,060.87

Hawaii County HI 4,028.02

Teton County WY 4,007.76

Weld County CO 3,992.45

Kane County UT 3,991.96

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Aessotariq Burg

Aessotariq

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Yep, some counties in western states are HUGE.

On the east coast the top 10 counties are in Maine and Florida:

Aroostook ME (6671.54) (this is the only one that appeared in the top 110 list), Piscataquis ME (3966.22), Somerset ME (3926.50), Penobscot ME (3395.73), Washington ME (2568.48), and Oxford ME (2078.00), Collier FL (2025.34), Palm Beach FL (1974.11), Miami-Dade FL (1946.06), and Polk FL (1874.38).

Horry County, SC has 1133.68 square miles of land area and ranks #19 in the South.

[font=tahoma][b][u]Top 25 counties in the South[/u]:[/b][/font]

Collier County FL 2025.34

Palm Beach County FL 1974.11

Miami-Dade County FL 1946.06

Polk County FL 1874.38

Baldwin County AL 1596.35

Marion County FL 1578.86

Vernon Parish LA 1328.41

Tuscaloosa County AL 1324.37

Rapides Parish LA 1322.54

Osceola County FL 1321.90

Cameron Parish 1312.96

Natchitoches Parish LA 1255.45

Terrebonne Parish LA 1254.93

Clarke County AL 1238.38

Mobile County AL 1233.09

Broward County FL 1205.40

Vermilion Parish LA 1173.78

Hendry County FL 1152.53

Horry County SC 1133.68

Levy County FL 1118.38

Jefferson County AL 1112.61

Orangeburg County SC 1106.16

Volusia County FL 1103.25

Berkeley County SC 1097.72

Lafourche Parish LA 1084.68

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Aessotariq Burg

Aessotariq

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Horry County is the largest land mass county on the Eastern USA.  Those counties include significant amounts of territory underwater.

The question was about land area.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

These figures include only land; if water were included, some of them would be much larger. Miami-Dade, for example, including water, is 2,431 square miles (485.19 sq. mi. of water). Horry County has 121.28 square miles of water, giving it a total area of 1,254.96 square miles, water and land included. I'm curious as to what criteria they're using to make that claim, and how they differ from these figures. Even Aroostook County, ME would be larger, at 6,671.54 square miles, not including its 157.25 square miles of water.

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Aessotariq Burg

Aessotariq

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That sounds like a technicality. These wetlands are still counted as land mass, as they are not within lakes, rivers, inlets, straits, estuaries, ocean, etc. And much of that land in Collier is dry for a good chunk of the year and could be developed if it were legal. The water that flows through the canals is probably subtracted from land mass.

Marion County, Florida, on the other hand, is not submerged, not in the Everglades, and has 1578.86 sq mi of land area, not including 84.15 sq mi of water bodies.

marion_map.gif

Perhaps Horry County is the largest county with contiguous territory on the east coast, one that does not have any bodies of water that break up its composition.

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PghUSA Town

PghUSA

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Largest county in Pennsylvania is Lycoming County (Williamsport) home of the Little League World Series

Allegheny County is the largest big-city county in the state at 770 sq. miles ;)

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colin Burg

colin

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Wow, thanks for all of that research!

I knew that Berdoo was #1 and, from research, that Nye, NV was #3, but I didn't expect so many to be in AZ (which is actually what I was more specificially looking for).

It seems strange that no one had a list online already, but I guess there's one now. Hopefully this thread will make it to Google because I'm sure that this question has come up in someone's mind before.

Thanks again.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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I did some more research on this. Horry county makes the claim to be the largest land mass county on the East Coast. Arrostook county is not on the coast and the others seem to include major bodies of water so the claim seems to be valid.

It is also the one of the very few counties in the entire world where the Venus Fly trap is native which has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

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Aessotariq Burg

Aessotariq

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You certainly know your geography, Aessotariq.

How does Aroostook County rank?

All of these numbers are on the Census' website... all it takes is a spreadsheet, the sort button, and some time to get this stuff together. :)

Aroostook is #46 when you include the Alaska boroughs as county-equivalents... #36 in the lower 48.

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