Sheridan Lake, a reservoir, is located on Spring Creek in Pennington County, South Dakota. Built over the site of Sheridan, the first county seat, it is owned and operated by the United States Forest Service, and is one of the recreational areas of Black Hills National Forest.
Sheridan Dam was built in 1939 as an earthen structure, 134 feet tall with a length of 850 feet at its crest. Maximum capacity of the reservoir is 22,043 acre-feet; normal storage is 13,395 acre-feet.
Facilities include a marina, improved swimming beach, campground and group campground on the North Shore, campgrounds and swimming beach on the South Shore, and various picnic and overlook areas. The dam across Spring Creek is very small and assessable only on foot; lake water levels remain constant, as the lake is not used for flood control or irrigation.
Sheridan Lake is accessible via U.S. Route 385 north from Hill City, South Dakota and Three Forks or south from Lead and Deadwood, or a scenic route via Sheridan Lake Drive (a paved county highway) from Rapid City.
Famous quotes containing the words sheridan and/or lake:
““Here is the steed that saved the day,
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester, twenty miles away!””
—Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–1872)
“Like a canoe route across the great lake on whose shore
One is left trapped, grumbling not so much at bad luck as
Because only this one side of experience is ever revealed.
And that meant something.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)