THE KANDIYOHI COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Des Moines Lobe setting.
Kandiyohi County has 797.4 square miles of land in Minnesota. 4 mapped landscape regions meet across Kandiyohi County: Des Moines Lobe, Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain, Wadena/Todd Drumlins and Osakis Till Plain, among others.
Glacial till plains and windblown loess hills make up the Western Corn Belt landscape. Near-level and rolling terrain are interspersed with steeper river valleys and hills.
Regional context: Western Corn Belt Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Kandiyohi County intersects 4 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Des Moines Lobe53.8%
- Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain28.8%
- Wadena/Todd Drumlins and Osakis Till Plain8.8%
- McGrath Till Plain and Drumlins8.7%
North Central Hardwood Forests in Kandiyohi 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 Kandiyohi County
The atlas lists 36 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Kandiyohi County, including Lake Lillian, Whitefield, Holland. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Kandiyohi County by land and water
The Census records 65 square miles of water within Kandiyohi County, or 7.5% of its total area. That share is close to Kandiyohi County’s 7.5%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Kandiyohi County has 56 times the land area of nearby Willmar city (14.2 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Chippewa County, Meeker County, Pope County, Renville County, Stearns County, Swift County within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

