
Recreational travelers in South Dakota’s Black Hills, Badlands and Lakes Region will find the vacationland of their dreams among the five lakes dotted around Custer State Park. All of the lakes – Bismarck Lake, Legion Lake, Stockade Lake, Center Lake…

Richmond Lake turned 75 years old in 2012. Built near Aberdeen during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s, Richmond Lake was one of 657 lakes built in South Dakota by the WPA. The government effort provided paid…

Waubay Chain of Lakes, in the Glacial Lakes & Prairies Region of northeast South Dakota, is a stunning example of nature’s triumph over human settlement. What was as recently as 1930 a series of shallow glacial lakes has enlarged until…
At the fringes of the unique Black Hills, or Paha Sapa in the Lakota language, is the Angostura Reservoir. Part of the Black Hills and Badlands western region of South Dakota, Angostura Reservoir is surrounded by stunning landscape and the…
Lake Traverse straddles the border of Minnesota’s Central tourism region and South Dakota’s northeastern Great Lakes and Prairie region. Covering more than 11,000 acres, this geologically unique lake is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of…

Marindahl Lake, in South Dakotas’s Southeast Region, isn’t the kind of lake you’ll find on lists of the world’s greatest lakes. Indeed, you may not be able to find it on any lists of commonly-known lakes. The lake is relatively…
Big Stone Lake’s sparkling blue water covers 12,360 acres and forms the border between western Minnesota and northeastern South Dakota. This picturesque lake dates back 20,000 years to the last ice age when glacial Lake Agassiz passed through the Traverse…

Lake Francis Case, one of the most popular recreation spots in the Great Plains, is located along the Missouri River in south-central South Dakota. Lake Francis Case is one of four reservoirs constructed along the Missouri River in South Dakota;…
Lake Sharpe, located on South Dakota Highways 50 and 47 near Chamberlain, and Reliance, is one of the four reservoirs constructed along the Missouri River in South Dakota. (The other three are Lewis and Clark Lake, Lake Oahe, and Lake…

Lake Oahe, named after an Oahe Indian Mission, roughly translates “a foundation” or “a place to stand on.” Spanning 231 miles from Pierre, South Dakota to Bismarck, North Dakota, and with a shoreline of 2,250 miles, it is no wonder…

Stretching 25 miles long and straddling the Nebraska and South Dakota border, 28,000-acre Lewis and Clark Lake is the smallest of the Missouri River reservoirs. Lewis and Clark Lake has become one of the most popular recreational spots in the…