THE UNION COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Loess Prairies setting.
Union County has 460.8 square miles of land in South Dakota. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Union County: Loess Prairies, Missouri Alluvial Plain, James River Lowland.
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
Union County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Loess Prairies50.3%
- Missouri Alluvial Plain35.7%
- James River Lowland14%
Northern Glaciated Plains in Union County
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.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Union County
The atlas lists 19 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Union County, including Elk Point, Sioux Valley, Virginia. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Union County by land and water
The Census records 6.37 square miles of water within Union County, or 1.4% of its total area. That share is close to Union County’s 1.4%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Union County has 10.9 times the land area of nearby Sioux Valley township (42.1 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Clay County, Lincoln County within South Dakota. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

