THE MARSHALL COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Illinois/Indiana Prairies setting.
Marshall County has 386.8 square miles of land in Illinois. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Marshall County: Illinois/Indiana Prairies, River Hills, Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
Glaciated plains historically supported tallgrass prairie mixed with oak and hickory woodland. Dark prairie soils and broad farming landscapes distinguish much of the Central Corn Belt.
Regional context: Central Corn Belt Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Marshall County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Illinois/Indiana Prairies67%
- River Hills23%
- Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain9.9%
Interior River Valleys and Hills in Marshall County
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.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Marshall County
The atlas lists 21 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Marshall County, including Roberts, Evans, Bell Plain. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Marshall County by land and water
The Census records 11.7 square miles of water within Marshall County, or 2.9% of its total area. That share is close to Marshall County’s 2.9%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Marshall County has 11.4 times the land area of nearby Hopewell township (33.8 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Bureau County, LaSalle County, Peoria County, Putnam County, Stark County, Woodford County within Illinois. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

