THE JEFFERSON COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Rolling Loess Prairies setting.
Jefferson County has 435.5 square miles of land in Iowa. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Jefferson County: Rolling Loess Prairies, Loess Flats and Till Plains.
Glacial till plains and windblown loess hills make up the Western Corn Belt landscape. Near-level and rolling terrain are interspersed with steeper river valleys and hills.
Regional context: Western Corn Belt Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Jefferson County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Rolling Loess Prairies63.7%
- Loess Flats and Till Plains36.3%
Central Irregular Plains in Jefferson County
Irregular plains form a transition between northern agricultural country and more wooded uplands to the south and east. Grassland and forest historically mixed, with wider woodland belts beside streams.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Jefferson County
The atlas lists 8 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Jefferson County, including Fairfield, Maharishi Vedic City, Pleasant Plain. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Jefferson County by land and water
The Census records 1.36 square miles of water within Jefferson County, or 0.3% of its total area. That share is close to Jefferson County’s 0.3%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Jefferson County has 130.4 times the land area of nearby Maharishi Vedic City city (3.34 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Davis County, Henry County, Keokuk County, Van Buren County, Wapello County, Washington County within Iowa. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

