Whiteside County, IL Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Whiteside County, Illinois, shaded from 570 ft on the west side to 880 ft on the northeast side
Elevation
880 ft 265 m800 ft 245 m760 ft 230 m680 ft 210 m610 ft 185 m570 ft 175 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

Whiteside County averages about 660 ft (200 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 570 ft on the west side to 880 ft on the northeast side.

Average elevation
660 ft 200 m
all land inside the county
Highest
880 ft 265 m
on the northeast side
Lowest
570 ft 175 m
on the west side

Whiteside 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 land660 ft200 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northeast side
880 ft265 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the west side
570 ft175 m

Elevation profile, west to east

31 mi west to east through Sterling Township.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Whiteside County, Illinois, shaded from 570 ft on the west side to 880 ft on the northeast side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
County in Illinois, United States
Population
54,657 2024 est.
Land area
684.1 sq mi + 12.3 sq mi water
Density
80 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. Ogle County810 ft
  2. Lee County790 ft
  3. Carroll County780 ft
  4. Clinton County, IA720 ft
  5. Henry County710 ft
  6. Bureau County700 ft
  7. Rock Island County670 ft
  8. Whiteside County660 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Thunderbolt Hill670 ft
All 35 towns in Whiteside County by typical elevation
  1. Coleta820 ft
  2. Genesee Township780 ft
  3. Jordan Township730 ft
  4. Clyde Township700 ft
  5. Ustick Township700 ft
  6. Union Grove Township680 ft
  7. Sterling Township680 ft
  8. Sterling670 ft
  9. Newton Township670 ft
  10. Mount Pleasant Township670 ft
  11. Morrison660 ft
  12. Garden Plain Township660 ft
  13. Deer Grove650 ft
  14. Montmorency Township650 ft
  15. Hahnaman Township640 ft
  16. Albany Township640 ft
  17. Albany640 ft
  18. Hopkins Township640 ft
  19. Coloma Township640 ft
  20. Rock Falls640 ft
  21. Tampico640 ft
  22. Tampico Township640 ft
  23. Galt640 ft
  24. Fenton Township640 ft
  25. Hume Township630 ft
  26. Como620 ft
  27. Prophetstown620 ft
  28. Prophetstown Township620 ft
  29. Lyndon Township620 ft
  30. Portland Township610 ft
  31. Lyndon610 ft
  32. Fulton600 ft
  33. Fulton Township590 ft
  34. Erie590 ft
  35. Erie Township590 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, 540 ft at 41.8126° N, 89.7501° 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.