Lake Francis Case
The Reservoirs · Lake 5 of 6 · RM 882–988

Lake Francis Case

107 miles behind Fort Randall Dam — chalk bluffs, cedar draws, and the drowned site of White Swan on the Yankton Sioux reservation.

The lake today
Pool ft msl
Ft below full
106
Pool miles
RM 882
to 988
Next 48 hours

Wind windows.

Calm <15 mph · Caution 15–25 · Hazardous 25+ sustained — tap any hour for detail
Wind alerts for this lake Plan a crossing
Access — ramps & recreation areas All on the map →
SiteRiver mileStateType
Old Fort Thompson987.8SDboat ramp
Fort Thompson Spillway987.7SDboat ramp
Good Soldier987.4SDboat ramp
Fort Thompson Left Tailrace987.4SDboat ramp
Fort Thompson Right Tailrace987.4SDboat ramp
Cedar Shores Land Use Area968.9SDboat ramp
Cedar Shores Land Use Area (High Water)968.9SDboat ramp
American Creek968.5SDboat ramp
American Creek Marina968.2SDboat ramp
North Point State Recreation Area882.3SDboat ramp
Randall Creek Recreation Area880.1SDboat ramp
Depths

Depths, at today's pool.

This lake IS mapped — marine-chart apps carry contours today. We're sourcing an open layer for all six pools (USACE Omaha surveys · state wildlife agencies · USGS ScienceBase). Depths will render against today's pool, not the full-pool number printed on fishing maps.

051020406080+ ft
What this water covers

The history under the lake.

Fort Randall Dam, finished in 1952, was the first of the Pick-Sloan dams to take reservation land: the Yankton Sioux community of White Swan — homes, churches, burial grounds, and the timbered bottoms that supported them — went under the pool with compensation that arrived late and small. Drought years still occasionally expose the old townsite.

The dam stands beside the ruins of its namesake, Fort Randall, the 1856 army post whose chapel walls still rise above the tailwater. Sitting Bull was held here as a prisoner in 1881-82. The reach below the dam opens the Missouri National Recreational River — the 39-mile district where the last free-flowing character of the lower Missouri survives.