Des Moines County, IA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
840 ft 255 m760 ft 230 m720 ft 220 m640 ft 195 m560 ft 170 m520 ft 160 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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
Des Moines County averages about 680 ft (205 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 520 ft on the east side to 840 ft on the northwest side.
Average elevation
680 ft 205 m
all land inside the county
Highest
840 ft 255 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
520 ft 155 m
on the east side
Des Moines County spans about 320 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.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 680 ft205 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on the northwest side | 840 ft255 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the east side | 520 ft155 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
26 mi south to north through Burlington.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Iowa, United States
- Population
- 38,411 2024 est.
- Land area
- 416.1 sq mi + 13.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 92 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform region
- Central Lowland
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Henry County690 ft
- Mercer County, IL680 ft
- Des Moines County680 ft
- Lee County650 ft
- Henderson County, IL650 ft
- Louisa County640 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Iowa96th highest of 99
- Counties in the United States2,074th highest of 3,151
All 11 towns in Des Moines County by typical elevation
- Yarmouth810 ft
- Mediapolis770 ft
- Sperry750 ft
- Middletown720 ft
- Danville720 ft
- West Burlington700 ft
- Beaverdale690 ft
- Burlington680 ft
- Oak Hills640 ft
- Augusta550 ft
- Kingston550 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, 520 ft at 40.9393° N, 91.0301° 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.