THE JEFFERSON COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Osage Cuestas setting.
Jefferson County has 532.6 square miles of land in Kansas. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Jefferson County: Osage Cuestas, Loess and Glacial Drift Hills.
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.
Regional context: Central Irregular Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Jefferson County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Osage Cuestas64.3%
- Loess and Glacial Drift Hills35.7%
Western Corn Belt Plains in Jefferson County
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.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Jefferson County
The atlas lists 22 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Jefferson County, including Delaware, Jefferson, Oskaloosa. 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 24.1 square miles of water within Jefferson County, or 4.3% of its total area. That share is close to Jefferson County’s 4.3%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Jefferson County has 14.2 times the land area of nearby Ozawkie township (37.6 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Atchison County, Douglas County, Jackson County, Leavenworth County, Shawnee County within Kansas. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

