THE BALLARD COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Loess Plains setting.
Ballard County has 247.1 square miles of land in Kentucky. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Ballard County: Loess Plains, Wabash-Ohio Bottomlands, Northern Holocene Meander Belts.
Windblown loess blankets irregular plains and rolling hills, with steeper bluffs near the Mississippi River. Flatter eastern areas contrast with the more deeply cut bluff country.
Regional context: Mississippi Valley Loess Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Ballard County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Loess Plains69.1%
- Wabash-Ohio Bottomlands28.8%
- Northern Holocene Meander Belts2.1%
Interior River Valleys and Hills in Ballard 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 ↗Mississippi Alluvial Plain in Ballard County
The Mississippi's broad alluvial plain includes river terraces, swales and natural levees. Small changes in elevation distinguish local settings within this generally flat river landscape.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Ballard County
The atlas lists 7 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Ballard County, including Bandana, Wickliffe, La Center. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Ballard County by land and water
The Census records 26.9 square miles of water within Ballard County, or 9.8% of its total area. That share is close to Ballard County’s 9.8%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Ballard County has 448.4 times the land area of nearby Barlow city (0.55 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Carlisle County, McCracken County within Kentucky. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

