Highway Access - With 569 square miles of roadway in Palo Alto County, moving goods and services to market is easy. There is 174 miles of paved roadways and 768 miles of granular surfaced roadways.  U.S. Hwy 18  and State Highways 4 and 15 crisscross the county.

Alternative Transportation - A unique program supported by RIDES provides low-cost bus service within the county. RIDES transit buses operate throughout Northwest Iowa.  In addition, a weekday ride service in Emmetsburg offers subsidized fares for all riders.

Rail - Two rail lines service Palo Alto County:

• Union Pacific - Rail extends north/south through Palo Alto County and allows freight to travel to all major Midwestern trade centers.
• Canadian Pacific - Provides provide freight service to metropolitan trade centers. Services Mason City, Dubuque, Davenport, Ottumwa, Kansas City, MO and Chicago, IL.

Air

• Primary air access is available at the Emmetsburg Municipal Airport. It has Fuel-100LL, Rotating Beacon, pcc surfaced runway - 13/31 20' wide x 3,401' length, turf runway - 17/35 150' wide x 2,170' length, Unicom-122.8, NBD-410.00 (EGQ), vor-110.00 (SPW).

• Commercial air service is provided within one-two hours to the south at Fort Dodge Regional Airport (FOD) and to the east at Mason City Municipal Airport (MCW). Connecting flights are offered to Minneapolis at these airports.