Great Lakes

Great Lakes covers the central swath of South Dakota along the Missouri River, the country built around the four large reservoirs created by Missouri River dams — Oahe, Sharpe, Francis Case, and Lewis and Clark. The terrain is rolling short-grass prairie broken by the Missouri’s deeply incised valley, with the Cheyenne River Reservation extending through the western counties and the Lower Brule and Crow Creek reservations along the river’s central stretch. Sixteen counties cover the region. Hughes holds Pierre (the state capital); Walworth holds Mobridge; Brule holds Chamberlain; Tripp holds Winner; Charles Mix holds Lake Andes; Stanley holds Fort Pierre (one of the oldest continuous European settlements in the Dakotas, founded 1817 as a fur-trading post). Lake Oahe (the largest of the Missouri reservoirs at 370,000 acres), Lake Sharpe, and Lake Francis Case anchor the major water recreation; the South Dakota State Capitol, the Cultural Heritage Center museum, and the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area concentrate the cultural sites. Most trips here run river-and-history focused. Pierre handles the state-capital itinerary — the Capitol building and the Cultural Heritage Center; Lake Oahe pulls walleye and salmon anglers (the lake stocks chinook salmon); Mobridge’s Sitting Bull Memorial and the Klein Museum carry Native American history; the Lewis and Clark Trail follows the river through the entire region.