Silver Lake is a

reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

located immediately east of De Smet, on the north side of

U.S. Highway 14 U.S. Route 14 (abbreviated U.S. 14 or US 14), an east–west route, is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It currently has a length of 1,398 miles (2,250 km), but it had a peak length of 1,429 miles (2,300 km). For ...

History

Silver Lake was the lake about which

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the ''Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

wrote in her novel ''

By the Shores of Silver Lake ''By the Shores of Silver Lake'' is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1939, the fifth of nine books in her Little House series. It spans just over one year, beginning when she is 12 years old ...

''.

Caroline Ingalls Caroline Lake Ingalls (; ''née'' Quiner (later Holbrook); December 12, 1839April 20, 1924) was the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the ''Little House on the Prairie, Little House'' books. Biography Childhood Caroline was born 15 ...

named the lake for the silvery appearance of its surface. The Ingalls home (currently, a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

) and Surveyor's House are very close to it. The lake is a "prairie pothole," a depression in which rain and snow-melt collect without any outlet that regulates its level. A drainage ditch to nearby Lake Henry was built in the 1920s with the support of local land owners to prevent the lake from fluctuating and flooding the surrounding land. The dry lakebed was used as a rubbish dump, although a portion of the lake has since filled again with water.

References

External links

''Fws.gov''DeSmet on ''The Google Maps''
Former lakes of the United States Lakes of South Dakota Marshes of South Dakota Lakes of Kingsbury County, South Dakota {{SouthDakota-geo-stub