Cape Girardeau County, MO Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, shaded from 310 ft on the southeast side to 810 ft on Grassy Knob
Elevation
810 ft 245 m680 ft 210 m620 ft 190 m500 ft 150 m380 ft 115 m310 ft 95 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

Cape Girardeau County averages about 460 ft (140 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 310 ft on the southeast side to 810 ft on Grassy Knob.

Average elevation
460 ft 140 m
all land inside the county
Highest
810 ft 245 m
on Grassy Knob
Lowest
310 ft 95 m
on the southeast side

Cape Girardeau County spans about 500 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 land460 ft140 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on Grassy Knob
810 ft245 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the southeast side
310 ft95 m

Elevation profile, south to north

21 mi south to north through Cape Girardeau.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, shaded from 310 ft on the southeast side to 810 ft on Grassy Knob
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 100 ft (30 m).
Location
County in Missouri, United States
Population
83,658 2024 est.
Land area
578.5 sq mi + 7.8 sq mi water
Density
145 per sq mi
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform regions
Ozark Plateaus 77%, Coastal Plain 23%
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. Bollinger County590 ft
  2. Perry County550 ft
  3. Union County, IL500 ft
  4. Cape Girardeau County460 ft
  5. Alexander County, IL390 ft
  6. Scott County340 ft
  7. Stoddard County340 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Grassy Knob810 ft
  • Thompson Hill, Cape Girardeau County750 ft
  • Tricky Hill740 ft
  • Coker Knob740 ft
  • Sheppard Point670 ft
All 14 towns in Cape Girardeau County by typical elevation
  1. Oak Ridge590 ft
  2. Pocahontas570 ft
  3. Shawneetown500 ft
  4. Jackson480 ft
  5. Millersville450 ft
  6. Old Appleton430 ft
  7. Burfordville430 ft
  8. Cape Girardeau420 ft
  9. Gordonville390 ft
  10. New Wells390 ft
  11. Dutchtown390 ft
  12. Whitewater370 ft
  13. Allenville350 ft
  14. Delta340 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.
  • Highest ground: the single highest 3DEP cell, 820 ft at 37.4288° N, 89.5035° 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).
  • 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, −11 ft at 37.2729° N, 89.5421° 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.