THE PIERCE COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Blufflands and Coulees setting.
Pierce County has 574 square miles of land in Wisconsin. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Pierce County: Blufflands and Coulees, Lower St. Croix and Vermillion Valleys.
Deeply cut valleys divide a bedrock plateau with windblown soil on many uplands. Glaciers had less influence here than in neighboring regions, leaving a distinctly hilly landscape.
Regional context: Driftless Area ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Pierce County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Blufflands and Coulees61%
- Lower St. Croix and Vermillion Valleys39%
Western Corn Belt Plains in Pierce 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 Pierce County
The atlas lists 27 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Pierce County, including River Falls, Maiden Rock, Oak Grove. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Pierce County by land and water
The Census records 18.7 square miles of water within Pierce County, or 3.2% of its total area. That share is close to Pierce County’s 3.2%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Pierce County has 151.2 times the land area of nearby Ellsworth village (3.8 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Dunn County, Pepin County, St. Croix County within Wisconsin. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

