Big Bend Dam, South Dakota

The Big Bend Dam is one of four dams on the Missouri River as it crosses South Dakota from north to south. Construction of the earthen dam started in 1959, and was completed in 1963. Like the other three, it was by the Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding along the Missouri, and the Corps maintains it to this day. These dams have tamed the river by turning it into a ribbon of swollen lakes for most of its course through the state. The river impoundment behind the dam is called Lake Sharp, and it extends for nearly 80 miles to the Oahe Dam, the largest of the four.