Glacial Lakes and Prairies

Glacial Lakes and Prairies covers the northeastern quadrant of South Dakota, the broad agricultural country between the North Dakota line and the James River. The terrain is gently rolling glacial drift — corn-and-soybean farmland broken by hundreds of glacial lakes scattered across the rolling country, with Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lake forming the Minnesota border. The region holds more than 100 named lakes. Twenty counties cover the region. Brown holds Aberdeen (the largest city, with Northern State University); Codington holds Watertown; Brookings holds Brookings and South Dakota State University; Roberts holds Sisseton and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate reservation; Beadle holds Huron and the Dakota State Fairgrounds; Deuel holds Clear Lake; Day holds Webster. Lake Thompson (the largest natural lake in South Dakota), Lake Kampeska, Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and Pickerel Lake handle the major water recreation; the Dakota State Fair runs in Huron each August. Most trips here run lake-and-fair focused. The summer-lake tradition pulls boaters and walleye fishermen across hundreds of named lakes; Aberdeen’s Storybook Land (a children’s theme park built around fairy-tale dioramas) draws families; Brookings’s South Dakota Art Museum carries cultural visits. Pheasant hunting (South Dakota is the country’s pheasant capital) drives a fall tourism wave.