Palo Alto County, IA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,530 ft 465 m1,430 ft 435 m1,380 ft 420 m1,280 ft 390 m1,190 ft 360 m1,140 ft 345 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
Palo Alto County averages about 1,260 ft (385 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,140 ft on the southeast side to 1,530 ft on the northwest side.
Average elevation
1,260 ft 385 m
all land inside the county
Highest
1,530 ft 465 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
1,140 ft 345 m
on the southeast side
Palo Alto County spans about 390 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 | 1,260 ft385 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on the northwest side | 1,530 ft465 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side | 1,140 ft345 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
24 mi west to east through Emmetsburg.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Iowa, United States
- Population
- 8,809 2024 est.
- Land area
- 563.9 sq mi + 5.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 16 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
- Clay County1,380 ft
- Emmet County1,300 ft
- Palo Alto County1,260 ft
- Pocahontas County1,230 ft
- Kossuth County1,170 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Iowa18th highest of 99
- Counties in the United States1,036th highest of 3,151
All 9 towns in Palo Alto County by typical elevation
- Ruthven1,430 ft
- Ayrshire1,330 ft
- Graettinger1,250 ft
- Emmetsburg1,240 ft
- Curlew1,240 ft
- Mallard1,240 ft
- Cylinder1,190 ft
- West Bend1,190 ft
- Rodman1,190 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.
- 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.