THE ST. LOUIS COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Boundary Lakes and Hills setting.
St. Louis County has 6,248.1 square miles of land in Minnesota. 9 mapped landscape regions meet across St. Louis County: Boundary Lakes and Hills, Glacial Lakes Upham and Aitkin, Toimi Drumlins, among others.
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.
Regional context: Northern Lakes and Forests ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
St. Louis County intersects 9 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Boundary Lakes and Hills33.2%
- Glacial Lakes Upham and Aitkin21.6%
- Toimi Drumlins20.3%
- Nashwauk/Marcell Moraines and Uplands9.3%
- Forested Lake Plains7.3%
Northern Minnesota Wetlands in St. Louis County
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.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within St. Louis County
The atlas lists 102 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with St. Louis County, including Hibbing, Bassett, Portage. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
St. Louis County by land and water
The Census records 612.4 square miles of water within St. Louis County, or 8.9% of its total area. That share is close to St. Louis County’s 8.9%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, St. Louis County has 178.7 times the land area of nearby Wuori township (35 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Aitkin County, Carlton County, Itasca County, Koochiching County, Lake County within Minnesota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

