THE LYON COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Des Moines Lobe setting.
Lyon County has 714.4 square miles of land in Minnesota. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Lyon County: Des Moines Lobe, Prairie Coteau, Prairie Coteau Escarpment.
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
Lyon County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Des Moines Lobe45.3%
- Prairie Coteau29.7%
- Prairie Coteau Escarpment25%
Northern Glaciated Plains in Lyon County
Flat to gently rolling glacial terrain supports a prairie transition between taller and shorter grasses. Many temporary and seasonal wetlands occupy depressions left in the glacial landscape.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Lyon County
The atlas lists 31 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Lyon County, including Vallers, Sodus, Westerheim. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Lyon County by land and water
The Census records 7.26 square miles of water within Lyon County, or 1% of its total area. That share is close to Lyon County’s 1%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Lyon County has 625 times the land area of nearby Lynd city (1.14 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Lincoln County, Murray County, Pipestone County, Redwood County, Yellow Medicine County within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

