McDonough County, IL Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of McDonough County, Illinois, shaded from 490 ft on the southwest side to 800 ft on the north side
Elevation
800 ft 245 m720 ft 220 m680 ft 210 m610 ft 185 m530 ft 160 m490 ft 150 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

McDonough County averages about 670 ft (205 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 490 ft on the southwest side to 800 ft on the north side.

Average elevation
670 ft 205 m
all land inside the county
Highest
800 ft 245 m
on the north side
Lowest
490 ft 150 m
on the southwest side

McDonough County spans about 310 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 land670 ft205 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the north side
800 ft245 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the southwest side
490 ft150 m

Elevation profile, south to north

24 mi south to north through Macomb.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of McDonough County, Illinois, shaded from 490 ft on the southwest side to 800 ft on the north side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
County in Illinois, United States
Population
26,662 2024 est.
Land area
589.3 sq mi + 0.8 sq mi water
Density
45 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. Warren County720 ft
  2. McDonough County670 ft
  3. Henderson County650 ft
  4. Hancock County640 ft
  5. Fulton County600 ft
  6. Schuyler County590 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Dyers Mound730 ft
All 30 towns in McDonough County by typical elevation
  1. Sciota760 ft
  2. Blandinsville Township730 ft
  3. Blandinsville720 ft
  4. Sciota Township720 ft
  5. Good Hope720 ft
  6. Hire Township710 ft
  7. Walnut Grove Township, McDonough County710 ft
  8. Colchester690 ft
  9. Macomb690 ft
  10. Colchester Township690 ft
  11. Emmet Township690 ft
  12. Tennessee690 ft
  13. Tennessee Township680 ft
  14. Macomb Township670 ft
  15. Bardolph670 ft
  16. Prairie City670 ft
  17. Prairie City Township660 ft
  18. Chalmers Township660 ft
  19. Eldorado Township660 ft
  20. Mound Township, McDonough County660 ft
  21. Industry660 ft
  22. Scotland Township660 ft
  23. Industry Township650 ft
  24. Bushnell650 ft
  25. Bushnell Township650 ft
  26. New Salem Township, McDonough County650 ft
  27. Adair650 ft
  28. Plymouth partly640 ft
  29. Bethel Township630 ft
  30. Lamoine Township570 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.
  • 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, 410 ft at 40.3676° N, 90.8246° 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.