This dataset contains a bare earth digital elevation model (DEM), with a 0.5-square-meter (m2) cell size, of the Cottonwood Lake Study Area, Stutsman County, North Dakota. The DEM was based primarily on airborne lidar data acquired by Fugro Horizons of Rapid City, South Dakota, and made into a DEM by USGS personnel using the ArcGIS extension LP360 (QCoherent Software, 2013). Wetland bathymetry for select wetlands was interpolated by splining from shoreline LiDAR points and field measured GPS points within the wetland. Through these steps, a continuous elevation model representing both the surrounding uplands and wetland basins was produced for the site (Mushet and Scherff 2017).