Silver Lake (Kingsbury County, South Dakota)

Silver Lake is a reclaimed lake located immediately east of De Smet, on the north side of U.S. Highway 14.

Location of De Smet, South Dakota

History

Silver Lake was the lake about which Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her novel By the Shores of Silver Lake. Caroline Ingalls named the lake for the silvery appearance of its surface.[1] The Ingalls home (currently, a museum) and Surveyor's House are very close to it. Despite its picturesque appearance the lake fluctuated drastically, occasionally flooding adjacent roads and farmland. It was drained into nearby Lake Henry in the 1920s and the lakebed was used as a rubbish dump. A portion of the lake has since filled again with water.

References
  1. Federal Writers' Project (1940). South Dakota place-names, v.2. University of South Dakota. p. 68.


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