Ottawa, IL Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ottawa, Illinois, shaded from 430 ft on the west side to 650 ft on the northeast side
Elevation
650 ft 200 m600 ft 180 m570 ft 175 m510 ft 155 m460 ft 140 m430 ft 130 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 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.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Ottawa sits at about 540 ft (165 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
540 ft 165 m
most residents: 480–610 ft
Lowest
430 ft 130 m
on the west side
Highest
650 ft 200 m
on the northeast side
Average
550 ft 170 m
all land inside city limits

Ottawa spans about 220 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
540 ft165 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the northeast side
650 ft200 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the west side
430 ft130 m
Town center
USGS map point for Ottawa
480 ft145 m
Airport (8N2)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 1.1 mi northeast of the city limits
616 ft188 m
Average of all land550 ft170 m

Elevation profile, south to north

6.1 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ottawa, Illinois, shaded from 430 ft on the west side to 650 ft on the northeast side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
City in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States
Population
18,775 2024 est.
Land area
14.9 sq mi + 0.6 sq mi water
Density
1,262 per sq mi
Coordinates
41.3456° N, 88.8426° W
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region
Central Lowland
Drains to
Illinois River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
Airport
Skydive Chicago (8N2) 616 ft
ZIP codes 1
61350
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Wallace Township620 ft
  2. Fall River Township610 ft
  3. Dayton Township610 ft
  4. South Ottawa Township590 ft
  5. Rutland Township, LaSalle County570 ft
  6. Dayton570 ft
  7. Ottawa540 ft
  8. Wedron530 ft
  9. Marseilles510 ft
  10. Naplate490 ft
  11. Ottawa Township480 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Starved Rock660 ft
  • Buffalo Rock570 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
  • 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 (FAA airport elevation, 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 (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones. All public domain.