Clay County, SD Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

1,500 ft 460 m1,400 ft 430 m1,360 ft 415 m1,260 ft 385 m1,160 ft 355 m1,110 ft 340 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

Clay County averages about 1,230 ft (375 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 1,110 ft on the southeast side to 1,500 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation

1,230 ft 375 m

all land inside the county

Highest

1,500 ft 460 m

on the northwest side

Lowest

1,110 ft 340 m

on the southeast side

Clay 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	1,230 ft375 m
Highest point Inside the county, on the northwest side	1,500 ft460 m
Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side	1,110 ft340 m

Elevation profile, south to north

25 mi south to north through Vermillion.

Topographic Map

Location: County in South Dakota, United States
Population: 15,245 2024 est.
Land area: 412.0 sq mi + 5.4 sq mi water
Density: 37 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

Cedar County, NE1,490 ft
Dixon County, NE1,410 ft
Turner County1,380 ft
Lincoln County1,380 ft
Yankton County1,330 ft
Union County1,240 ft
Clay County1,230 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Counties in South Dakotalowest of 66
Counties in the United States1,077th highest of 3,151

Peaks and hills highest inside

Spirit Mound1,300 ft

All 17 towns in Clay County by typical elevation

Irene partly1,390 ft
Wakonda1,390 ft
Star Township1,350 ft
Glenwood Township1,330 ft
Bethel Township1,320 ft
Garfield Township1,240 ft
Riverside Township1,230 ft
Vermillion1,230 ft
Pleasant Valley Township, Clay County1,220 ft
Prairie Center Township1,220 ft
Spirit Mound Township1,210 ft
Vermillion Township1,200 ft
Meckling Township1,150 ft
Norway Township, Clay County1,150 ft
Meckling1,150 ft
Fairview Township1,140 ft
Burbank1,140 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.