THE MAHNOMEN COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Lake Agassiz Plains setting.
Mahnomen County has 557.9 square miles of land in Minnesota. 4 mapped landscape regions meet across Mahnomen County: Lake Agassiz Plains, Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain, Itasca and St. Louis Moraines, among others.
The former bed of glacial Lake Agassiz forms an exceptionally flat plain in the Red River valley. Thick lake sediments overlie older glacial deposits across this historic prairie landscape.
Regional context: Lake Agassiz Plain ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Mahnomen County intersects 4 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Lake Agassiz Plains45.5%
- Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain38.6%
- Itasca and St. Louis Moraines10.6%
- Chippewa Plains5.2%
North Central Hardwood Forests in Mahnomen 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 ↗Northern Lakes and Forests in Mahnomen 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 ↗Finding your parcel within Mahnomen County
The atlas lists 28 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Mahnomen County, including Marsh Creek, Bejou, Popple Grove. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Mahnomen County by land and water
The Census records 25 square miles of water within Mahnomen County, or 4.3% of its total area. That share is close to Mahnomen County’s 4.3%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Mahnomen County has 144.3 times the land area of nearby Beaulieu CDP (3.87 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Becker County, Clearwater County, Norman County, Polk County within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

