Central Sand Plains

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  The Central Plain of Wisconsin is a crescent (moon) - shaped belt covering about 13,000 square miles. Most of the ground in the Central Sand Plain is made up of weak Cambrian sandstone. In the northwest area, it used to be sandstone but now a small area is covered in  Keweenawan lavas, another type of ground cover. The highest elevation of the Central Sand Plain is in Cumberland in Barron County .  The elevation is 785 feet in Portage in Columbia County .  The lowest elevation is 685 feet in Ellis Junction in Marinette County.

The Central Plain is not all a continuous plain.  Many places have low hills like in the Wisconsin Dells area, north of Tomah, south of Pray and southeast of Black River Falls . Parts of the plain are due to (a) smooth river deposits, (b) lake- bottom accumulations, (c) vegetation in swamps, or (d) glacial drift.