The Bad River (

Lakota Lakota may refer to: *Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: *Lakota, Iowa *Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County *Lakota ...

: ''wakpá-šiča''; "river-bad") is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 30, 2011 in central

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. 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 Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The river is formed at

Philip, South Dakota Philip is a town in and the county seat of rural Haakon County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 759 at the 2020 census. History Philip was laid out in 1907 when the Chicago and North Western Railway was extended to that point. ...

, by the confluence of its North and South forks. The North Fork Bad River rises in eastern Pennington County and flows east-southeast to Philip, while the South Fork Bad River rises at the confluence of Whitewater Creek and Big Buffalo Creek in Jackson County, within the

Buffalo Gap National Grassland Buffalo Gap National Grassland is a National Grassland located primarily in southwestern South Dakota, United States. It is also the second largest National Grassland, after Little Missouri National Grassland in North Dakota. Characteristics of t ...

, and flows northeast to Philip. The main stem of the Bad River flows east-northeast from Philip, passing Midland and Capa. It joins the Missouri at Fort Pierre. The Bad drainage basin is about and is located south of the

Cheyenne River The Cheyenne River ( lkt, Wakpá Wašté; "Good River"), also written ''Chyone'', referring to the Cheyenne people who once lived there, is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 2 ...

in the Pierre Hills and Southern Plateaus. The river basin is noted for deposits of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

and

fuller's earth Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite. Modern uses of fuller's ea ...

. At the river mouth near Fort Pierre, the Bad River flood stage contains large quantities of

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

. The Bad carries

hard water Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbo ...

of generally poor quality. The name recalls an incident around the spring of 1738 when a flash flood on the Bad River inundated the camp of a north-traveling band, causing a large loss of life, including all their horses. The Bad River was called the Teton River by Lewis & Clark in 1804 as the place where they parlayed with Teton Lakota, but the name did not catch. At Fort Pierre, the river has a mean annual discharge of .

Industrial use

As of November 2019,

TC Energy TC Energy Corporation (formerly TransCanada Corporation) is a major North American energy company, based in the TC Energy Tower building in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that develops and operates energy infrastructure in Canada, the United States, a ...

was applying for permits in the state to tap the Bad River to use water for the construction of Phase 4 of the

Keystone pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...

, including camp construction to house transient construction workers.

References

Rivers of South Dakota Tributaries of the Missouri River Rivers of Haakon County, South Dakota Rivers of Pennington County, South Dakota Rivers of Jackson County, South Dakota Rivers of Stanley County, South Dakota {{SouthDakota-river-stub

Industrial use

See also

References