St. Louis County, MN Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of St. Louis County, Minnesota, shaded from 600 ft on the south side to 1,934 ft on Pike Mountain
Elevation
1,930 ft 590 m1,600 ft 490 m1,430 ft 435 m1,100 ft 335 m770 ft 235 m600 ft 185 m
Zoom in for contour lines
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

St. Louis County averages about 1,380 ft (420 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 600 ft on the south side to 1,934 ft on Pike Mountain.

Average elevation
1,380 ft 420 m
all land inside the county
Highest
1,934 ft 589 m
on Pike Mountain
Lowest
600 ft 185 m
on the south side

St. Louis County spans about 1,330 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 land1,380 ft420 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on Pike Mountain (NGS survey height)
1,934 ft589 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the south side
600 ft185 m

Elevation profile, south to north

111 mi south to north through Duluth.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of St. Louis County, Minnesota, shaded from 600 ft on the south side to 1,934 ft on Pike Mountain
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 100 ft (30 m).
Location
County in Minnesota, United States
Population
200,794 2024 est.
Land area
6,248.1 sq mi + 612.4 sq mi water
Density
32 per sq mi
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region
Superior Upland
Drains to
Great Lakes 50%, Canada 50%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Lake County1,570 ft
  2. St. Louis County1,380 ft
  3. Itasca County1,360 ft
  4. Aitkin County1,270 ft
  5. Koochiching County1,220 ft
  6. Carlton County1,190 ft
  7. Douglas County, WI1,060 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Pike Mountain1,934 ft
  • Lookout Mountain, St. Louis County1,850 ft
  • Jasper Peak1,700 ft
  • Moose Mountain, St. Louis County1,660 ft
  • Maple Hill, St. Louis County1,650 ft
All 103 towns in St. Louis County by typical elevation
  1. Bassett Township1,650 ft
  2. Eveleth1,610 ft
  3. Fairbanks Township1,590 ft
  4. Gilbert1,560 ft
  5. Kinney1,550 ft
  6. Buhl1,520 ft
  7. Chisholm1,520 ft
  8. Ault Township1,510 ft
  9. Eagles Nest Township1,510 ft
  10. Balkan Township1,500 ft
  11. Hibbing1,490 ft
  12. Babbitt1,490 ft
  13. Pequaywan Township1,490 ft
  14. McKinley1,480 ft
  15. North Star Township, St. Louis County1,480 ft
  16. Hoyt Lakes1,480 ft
  17. Sandy Township1,470 ft
  18. Wuori Township1,470 ft
  19. Aurora1,460 ft
  20. Biwabik1,460 ft
  21. Soudan1,460 ft
  22. Kugler Township1,450 ft
  23. Leonidas1,450 ft
  24. Ely1,450 ft
  25. White Township1,450 ft
  26. Morse Township1,440 ft
  27. Pike Township1,440 ft
  28. Waasa Township1,440 ft
  29. Virginia1,440 ft
  30. Embarrass Township1,440 ft
  31. Colvin Township1,440 ft
  32. Vermilion Lake Township1,440 ft
  33. Mountain Iron1,430 ft
  34. Canosia Township1,430 ft
  35. Breitung Township1,430 ft
  36. Great Scott Township1,420 ft
  37. Tower1,390 ft
  38. Beatty Township1,390 ft
  39. Rice Lake1,390 ft
  40. French Township1,390 ft
  41. Fayal Township1,390 ft
  42. Hermantown1,380 ft
  43. Biwabik Township1,380 ft
  44. Fredenberg Township1,380 ft
  45. Ellsburg Township1,380 ft
  46. Grand Lake Township1,380 ft
  47. Greenwood Township1,380 ft
  48. Goodwill Township1,380 ft
  49. Orr1,380 ft
  50. Gnesen Township1,380 ft
  51. Cherry Township1,370 ft
  52. Clinton Township1,370 ft
  53. Iron Junction1,370 ft
  54. Camp 5 Township1,360 ft
  55. Solway Township1,360 ft
  56. Angora Township1,360 ft
  57. Northland Township1,350 ft
  58. Alango Township1,340 ft
  59. Arrowhead Township1,340 ft
  60. New Independence Township1,340 ft
  61. Willow Valley Township1,340 ft
  62. Cotton Township1,340 ft
  63. Industrial Township1,330 ft
  64. Winton1,330 ft
  65. McDavitt Township1,330 ft
  66. Leiding Township1,330 ft
  67. Alborn Township1,330 ft
  68. Owens Township1,320 ft
  69. Cook1,310 ft
  70. Field Township1,310 ft
  71. Sturgeon Township1,310 ft
  72. Culver Township1,310 ft
  73. Stoney Brook Township1,310 ft
  74. Normanna Township1,310 ft
  75. Lavell Township1,300 ft
  76. Kelsey Township1,300 ft
  77. Brevator Township1,300 ft
  78. Fine Lakes Township1,300 ft
  79. Linden Grove Township1,300 ft
  80. Portage Township1,300 ft
  81. Nett Lake1,300 ft
  82. Morcom Township1,290 ft
  83. Mahnomen, St. Louis County1,290 ft
  84. Toivola Township1,280 ft
  85. Meadowlands Township1,280 ft
  86. Prairie Lake Township1,280 ft
  87. Meadowlands1,280 ft
  88. Halden Township1,270 ft
  89. Elmer Township, St. Louis County1,270 ft
  90. Midway Township1,270 ft
  91. Cedar Valley Township1,270 ft
  92. Floodwood Township1,270 ft
  93. Ness Township1,270 ft
  94. Proctor1,270 ft
  95. Floodwood1,260 ft
  96. Van Buren Township1,250 ft
  97. Alden Township, St. Louis County1,240 ft
  98. Brookston1,240 ft
  99. Kabetogama Township1,200 ft
  100. Crane Lake Township1,180 ft
  101. Lakewood Township1,150 ft
  102. Duluth Township980 ft
  103. Duluth860 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 3 arc-second (≈300 ft, 93 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • Highest ground: the single highest 3DEP cell, 1,940 ft at 47.5574° N, 92.4304° W, has no federal (GNIS) summit name within 980 ft (300 m), so the high point shown is the highest of the 25 highest cells with a GNIS summit within 1,640 ft (500 m).
  • 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.