THE BELTRAMI COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Peatlands setting.
Beltrami County has 2,504.6 square miles of land in Minnesota. 6 mapped landscape regions meet across Beltrami County: Peatlands, Chippewa Plains, Forested Lake Plains, among others.
Former glacial lake basins form nearly level terrain with extensive wetlands and boreal vegetation. Marsh, swamp and forest patterns are central to this northern Minnesota landscape.
Regional context: Northern Minnesota Wetlands ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Beltrami County intersects 6 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Peatlands59.4%
- Chippewa Plains31.1%
- Forested Lake Plains6.1%
- Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain2.2%
- Lake Agassiz Plains1%
Northern Lakes and Forests in Beltrami County
Glacial hills, till plains, sandy outwash and old lake basins create a varied northern landscape. Conifer and hardwood forests surround many lakes across these glacially shaped uplands.
Read the regional source ↗North Central Hardwood Forests in Beltrami County
This transition between northern forests and southern farming country includes lakes, wetlands and hardwood woodland. Glacial landforms support a mosaic of open land and wooded areas.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Beltrami County
The atlas lists 54 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Beltrami County, including Waskish, Shooks, Cormant. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Beltrami County by land and water
The Census records 550.5 square miles of water within Beltrami County, or 18% of its total area. That share is close to Beltrami County’s 18%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Beltrami County has 493.4 times the land area of nearby Red Lake CDP (5.08 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Cass County, Clearwater County, Hubbard County, Itasca County, Koochiching County, Lake of the Woods County, Marshall County, Pennington County and other counties within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

