THE JERAULD COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
James River Lowland setting.
Jerauld County has 526.1 square miles of land in South Dakota. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Jerauld County: James River Lowland, Southern Missouri Coteau, Southern Missouri Coteau Slope.
Flat to gently rolling glacial terrain supports a prairie transition between taller and shorter grasses. Many temporary and seasonal wetlands occupy depressions left in the glacial landscape.
Regional context: Northern Glaciated Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Jerauld County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- James River Lowland42%
- Southern Missouri Coteau33.5%
- Southern Missouri Coteau Slope24.5%
Northwestern Glaciated Plains in Jerauld County
Glaciated plains bridge the wetter eastern prairie and the drier, more broken Great Plains. Numerous prairie potholes and other seasonal or persistent wetlands are characteristic regional landforms.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Jerauld County
The atlas lists 17 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Jerauld County, including Viola, Blaine, Marlar. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Jerauld County by land and water
The Census records 6.46 square miles of water within Jerauld County, or 1.2% of its total area. That share is close to Jerauld County’s 1.2%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Jerauld County has 292.1 times the land area of nearby Wessington Springs city (1.8 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Aurora County, Beadle County, Brule County, Buffalo County, Hand County, Sanborn County within South Dakota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

