Box Elder, SD Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,430 ft 1,045 m3,320 ft 1,010 m3,260 ft 995 m3,150 ft 960 m3,030 ft 925 m2,970 ft 905 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 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.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Box Elder sits at about 3,160 ft (960 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
3,160 ft 960 m
most residents: 3,060–3,230 ft
Lowest
2,970 ft 905 m
on the east side
Highest
3,430 ft 1,045 m
on the south side
Average
3,140 ft 955 m
all land inside city limits
Box Elder spans about 460 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 3,160 ft960 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the south side | 3,430 ft1,045 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the east side | 2,970 ft905 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Box Elder | 3,030 ft925 m |
| Airport (RAP) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 2.7 mi south of the city limits | 3,204 ft977 m |
| Average of all land | 3,140 ft955 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
5.5 mi south to north through the town center.
Altitude Effects
What 3,160 ft means day to day, worked out from the typical elevation.
Water boils at
206.1 °F96.7 °C
vs 212 °F at sea level; USDA: food takes longer to cook.
Air pressure
89% of sea level
26.7 inHg (90.3 kPa): each breath holds 11% less air.
Oxygen equivalent
18.7% at sea level
Air is still 21% oxygen, just thinner. Normal at the coast: 20.9%.
Sunburn
+6% more UV
EPA: UV rises about 2% for every 1,000 ft.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Pennington and Meade counties, South Dakota, United States
- Population
- 13,887 2024 est.
- Land area
- 14.9 sq mi
- Density
- 934 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 44.1125° N, 103.0682° W
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Great Plains
- Drains to
- Boxelder Creek → Cheyenne River → Missouri River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
- Airport
- Rapid City Regional (RAP) 3,204 ft
- ZIP codes 3
- 57703 57706 57719
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Colonial Pine Hills4,060 ft
- Summerset3,660 ft
- Blackhawk3,560 ft
- Rapid City3,320 ft
- Rapid Valley3,170 ft
- Box Elder3,160 ft
- Ashland Heights3,120 ft
- Green Valley3,050 ft
- Caputa2,920 ft
- New Underwood2,850 ft
- Viewfield Township2,770 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in South Dakota46th highest of 1,383
- Towns in Pennington County7th highest of 34
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Black Elk Peak7,200 ft
- Green Mountain7,160 ft
- Bear Butte4,427 ft
- Cowboy Hill3,800 ft
- Hangman Hill3,586 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- 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, 2,970 ft at 44.1060° N, 102.9982° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
- Altitude effects: standard-atmosphere formulas applied to the typical elevation; UV from EPA's rule of thumb (about 2% per 1,000 ft).
- 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 (FAA airport elevation, 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 (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.