Pawnee County, NE Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Pawnee County, Nebraska, shaded from 970 ft on the east side to 1,540 ft on the southwest side
Elevation
1,540 ft 470 m1,400 ft 425 m1,320 ft 405 m1,180 ft 360 m1,040 ft 315 m970 ft 295 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

Pawnee County averages about 1,280 ft (390 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 970 ft on the east side to 1,540 ft on the southwest side.

Average elevation
1,280 ft 390 m
all land inside the county
Highest
1,540 ft 470 m
on the southwest side
Lowest
970 ft 295 m
on the east side

Pawnee County spans about 570 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 land1,280 ft390 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the southwest side
1,540 ft470 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the east side
970 ft295 m

Elevation profile, west to east

24 mi west to east through Pawnee City.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Pawnee County, Nebraska, shaded from 970 ft on the east side to 1,540 ft on the southwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 40 ft (12 m).
Location
County in Nebraska, United States
Population
2,521 2024 est.
Land area
431.1 sq mi + 1.9 sq mi water
Density
5.8 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. Gage County1,360 ft
  2. Marshall County, KS1,300 ft
  3. Pawnee County1,280 ft
  4. Nemaha County, KS1,250 ft
  5. Johnson County1,240 ft
  6. Nemaha County1,060 ft
  7. Richardson County1,030 ft

Rankings by average elevation

All 6 towns in Pawnee County by typical elevation
  1. Lewiston1,460 ft
  2. Burchard1,400 ft
  3. Steinauer1,210 ft
  4. Pawnee City1,200 ft
  5. Table Rock1,090 ft
  6. Du Bois1,060 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, 960 ft at 40.0124° N, 96.0324° 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.