THE MURRAY COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Des Moines Lobe setting.
Murray County has 704.7 square miles of land in Minnesota. 4 mapped landscape regions meet across Murray County: Des Moines Lobe, Prairie Coteau, Loess Prairies, 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
Murray County intersects 4 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Des Moines Lobe64.8%
- Prairie Coteau22.2%
- Loess Prairies11.1%
- Big Sioux Basin2%
Northern Glaciated Plains in Murray 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 Murray County
The atlas lists 30 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Murray County, including Cameron, Belfast, Fenton. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Murray County by land and water
The Census records 14.8 square miles of water within Murray County, or 2.1% of its total area. That share is close to Murray County’s 2.1%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Murray County has 342.2 times the land area of nearby Slayton city (2.06 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Cottonwood County, Lyon County, Nobles County, Pipestone County, Redwood County, Rock County within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

