Oahe Dam and Lake Oahe

Lake Oahe covers what was the homeland and reservation land of tribal nations of the Oceti Sakowin, the Great Sioux Nation, including communities of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux. When the dam went up in the mid twentieth century, the rising water flooded fertile bottomlands where families had lived, farmed, and buried their dead, forcing removals and drowning towns, timber, and sacred sites.

The dam's very name, Oahe, comes from a Lakota word associated with a mission and meaning a place to stand or a foundation, tying the great reservoir to the language of the people whose land it flooded. The loss of the river bottoms was profound and lasting, and any honest account of Lake Oahe holds both the engineering achievement and the cost paid by the tribal nations of the Missouri.

For centuries the Missouri ran wild, flooding its valley in wet years and shrinking in dry ones. In the mid twentieth century a plan to control the whole river brought a chain of enormous dams across the plains, and Oahe was among the largest of them, built to hold back floodwater, generate hydroelectric power, and store water for the region.

The dam itself is not concrete but earth, a colossal embankment of rolled and compacted material anchored across the river, with a powerhouse at its base. It represents an era of grand public works that reshaped the American West, turning a free-flowing river into a stair-step of reservoirs, of which Lake Oahe is one of the mightiest.

Lake Oahe is renowned among anglers, a destination for walleye and for chinook salmon that were introduced and thrive in the deep, cold water. The tailwaters just below the dam, where the released river runs fast and cold, are a hotspot in their own right, drawing fishermen who wade or launch small boats to work the current.

Around the reservoir a string of recreation areas offers boat ramps, campgrounds, beaches, and picnic grounds, making the lake a summer playground for the region. The sheer size of the water means there is room to spread out, and on a calm evening the reservoir stretches to the horizon under the big central-plains sky.

Summer is the height of the season, warm and long, drawing boaters, anglers, campers, and swimmers to the shores and the water. The recreation areas are busiest then, and the fishing for walleye is a major draw.

Fall cools the air and quiets the crowds, and the salmon fishing near the dam peaks as the fish run, a favorite time for serious anglers. Winter turns the country stark and cold, with ice fishing on the frozen bays and eagles gathering below the dam where the tailwaters stay open. Spring thaws the lake and greens the shore as the fishing season builds again.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.