THE PHELPS COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Central Plateau setting.
Phelps County has 671.8 square miles of land in Missouri. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Phelps County: Central Plateau, Osage/Gasconade Hills, Meramec River Hills.
Wooded uplands over limestone, dolomite and sandstone characterize the Ozarks. Springs, caves and spring-fed streams are widespread regional features within a landscape of uneven plateaus and valleys.
Regional context: Ozark Highlands ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Phelps County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Central Plateau56.3%
- Osage/Gasconade Hills37.6%
- Meramec River Hills6%
Finding your parcel within Phelps County
The atlas lists 5 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Phelps County, including Rolla, St. James, Doolittle. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Phelps County by land and water
The Census records 2.54 square miles of water within Phelps County, or 0.4% of its total area. That share is close to Phelps County’s 0.4%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Phelps County has 55.4 times the land area of nearby Rolla city (12.1 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Crawford County, Dent County, Gasconade County, Maries County, Pulaski County, Texas County within Missouri. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

