THE ADAMS COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Western Dissected Illinoian Till Plain setting.
Adams County has 855.2 square miles of land in Illinois. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Adams County: Western Dissected Illinoian Till Plain, River Hills, Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
Broad terraced river valleys contrast with wooded slopes and dissected glacial plains. Bottomland settings and upland oak landscapes occur close together across the Interior River Valleys and Hills.
Regional context: Interior River Valleys and Hills ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Adams County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Western Dissected Illinoian Till Plain58.3%
- River Hills29.1%
- Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain12.6%
Finding your parcel within Adams County
The atlas lists 47 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Adams County, including Ursa, Lima, Melrose. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Adams County by land and water
The Census records 16.1 square miles of water within Adams County, or 1.9% of its total area. That share is close to Adams County’s 1.9%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Adams County has 23.1 times the land area of nearby Gilmer township (37 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Brown County, Hancock County, Pike County, Schuyler County within Illinois. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.