A study by the American Geographic Society, carried out in 2013, found that West Virginia was the most mountainous (or, to be more precise, the least flat) of the 48 contiguous US states – in fact, of 49 including the District of Columbia.
The methodology was basically to determine what percentage of sight lines were interrupted by a hill that sustained an angle with the horizontal of more than 0.32 degrees. This sounds like quite a small angle, but it's the angle sustained by a hill 30 metres high at a distance of 5,310 metres – this being the distance to the horizon for a person, six feet (or 1.83 metres) in height, standing in a perfectly flat area of the Earth's surface. (That's if I've understood correctly.)
Sixteen of these sight lines (spread evenly around the compass) were measured, using map data, from each point on a 90–metre grid of the US land area.
The study started from the premise that Kansas is believed by most US citizens to be the flattest state. It found that Florida was actually the flattest, with 52% of sightlines being flat; Kansas was in fact the 7th flattest, with 44% of sightlines being flat. In West Virginia, only 26% were flat.
According to Wikipedia, West Virginia "is noted for its mountains and rolling hills ... and for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, rock climbing, and hunting." Its highest point is Spruce Knob – the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains – at 4,863 feet (1,482 metres).
© Haydn Thompson 2021