Big Bend Dam is a major embankment rolled-earth dam on the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in Central

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, creating Lake Sharpe. The dam was constructed by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan for Missouri watershed development authorized by the

Flood Control Act of 1944 The Pick-Sloan Flood Control Act of 1944 (P.L. 78–534), enacted in the 2nd session of the 78th Congress, is U.S. legislation that authorized the construction of numerous dams and modifications to previously existing dams, as well as levees ac ...

. Construction began in 1959 and the embankment was completed in July 1963. Power generation began at the facility in 1964 and the entire complex was completed in 1966 at a total cost of $107 million. The hydroelectric plant generates 493,300 kilowatts of electricity at maximum capacity, with an annual production of 969 million kilowatt hours, and meets peak-hour demand for power within the Missouri River Basin. Located near Fort Thompson, South Dakota, just south of the Big Bend of the Missouri River, a large

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

, Big Bend Dam creates Lake Sharpe, named after

Governor Merrill Q. Sharpe. The lake extends for up the course of the Missouri River passing through

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, the State Capitol, to

Oahe Dam The Oahe Dam () is a large earthen dam on the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota, Pierre, South Dakota, United States. Begun in 1948 and opened in 1962, the dam creates Lake Oahe, the fourth-largest man-made reservoir in the United ...

, another major power-generating and flood control dam. Lake Sharpe covers a total of and drains an area just under . South Dakota Highway 47 crosses over the dam, connecting Lyman and Buffalo Counties. Big Bend Dam is located approximately north of

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

, and approximately southeast of

. The next dam upstream is

, near

, and the next dam downstream is Fort Randall Dam, near Pickstown.

Native American tribes

The construction of the dam resulted in the dislocation of people on the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations. The flooding of the land for the

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

also resulted in the loss of limited plant life resources used by them for food and medicine. A monument at Big Bend Dam dedicated in 2002, the Spirit of the Circle Monument, honors the more than 1,300 people who died over a three-year period in the 1860s at the

Crow Creek Reservation The Crow Creek Indian Reservation (, '), home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ( or Húŋkpathi Oyáte) is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota in the United States. ...

near the present site of the dam.

2011 Missouri River flood

For the first time in the dam's history, the

US Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

opened the dam's spillway gates on the morning of June 3, 2011. In response to the

2011 Missouri River Floods The 2011 flooding event on the Missouri River in the United States was triggered by record snowfall in Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming along with near-record spring rainfall in central and eastern Montana. All six major dams along the ...

, the dam was releasing , which greatly exceeded its previous record release of set in 1997.

References

External links

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Big Bend Dam

Daily Reservoir Levels and Water Releases - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
. {{Authority control Dams in South Dakota Dams on the Missouri River Hydroelectric power plants in South Dakota Buildings and structures in Buffalo County, South Dakota Buildings and structures in Lyman County, South Dakota United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Energy infrastructure completed in 1964 Dams completed in 1966 Earth-filled dams

Native American tribes

2011 Missouri River flood

See also

References

External links