Knox County, IL Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Knox County, Illinois, shaded from 520 ft on the south side to 880 ft on Pilot Knob
Elevation
880 ft 265 m790 ft 240 m740 ft 225 m650 ft 200 m560 ft 170 m520 ft 160 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Knox County averages about 720 ft (220 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 520 ft on the south side to 880 ft on Pilot Knob.

Average elevation
720 ft 220 m
all land inside the county
Highest
880 ft 265 m
on Pilot Knob
Lowest
520 ft 160 m
on the south side

Knox County spans about 360 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Average of all land720 ft220 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on Pilot Knob
880 ft265 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the south side
520 ft160 m

Elevation profile, west to east

24 mi west to east through Galesburg.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Knox County, Illinois, shaded from 520 ft on the south side to 880 ft on Pilot Knob
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
County in Illinois, United States
Population
48,716 2024 est.
Land area
716.4 sq mi + 3.4 sq mi water
Density
68 per sq mi
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region
Central Lowland
Drains to
Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Stark County720 ft
  2. Knox County720 ft
  3. Warren County720 ft
  4. Henry County710 ft
  5. Mercer County680 ft
  6. Peoria County650 ft
  7. Fulton County600 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Pilot Knob, Knox County880 ft
All 37 towns in Knox County by typical elevation
  1. Wataga830 ft
  2. Victoria830 ft
  3. Sparta Township830 ft
  4. Henderson820 ft
  5. Oneida810 ft
  6. Ontario Township800 ft
  7. Victoria Township800 ft
  8. Copley Township780 ft
  9. Henderson Township780 ft
  10. Rio780 ft
  11. Rio Township780 ft
  12. Galesburg780 ft
  13. Knoxville770 ft
  14. East Galesburg770 ft
  15. Knox Township770 ft
  16. Lynn Township, Knox County760 ft
  17. Galesburg Township760 ft
  18. Walnut Grove Township760 ft
  19. Altona760 ft
  20. Cedar Township740 ft
  21. Abingdon740 ft
  22. Indian Point Township730 ft
  23. Oak Run720 ft
  24. Persifer Township700 ft
  25. Williamsfield700 ft
  26. Truro Township700 ft
  27. Gilson690 ft
  28. Orange Township690 ft
  29. Haw Creek Township680 ft
  30. Elba Township670 ft
  31. Yates City670 ft
  32. Salem Township, Knox County670 ft
  33. St. Augustine660 ft
  34. Chestnut Township640 ft
  35. Maquon630 ft
  36. Maquon Township630 ft
  37. London Mills partly530 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • Highest ground: the single highest 3DEP cell, 880 ft at 41.0171° N, 90.2479° W, has no federal (GNIS) summit name within 980 ft (300 m), so the high point shown is the highest of the 25 highest cells with a GNIS summit within 1,640 ft (500 m).
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, 520 ft at 40.7157° N, 90.2635° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
  • Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.