Lewis and Clark Trail History

Lake Francis Case in South Dakota

On August 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was approaching Sioux territory from the south. Private George Shannon failed to return to camp after a day of hunting. He didn't report in the next day, or the day after. On September 11 the bowman on the keelboat spotted Shannon sitting by the bank, nearly starved to death. Having been sure that the boat was ahead of him, he had spent the last sixteen days trying to catch up.

The dashed horizontal line towards the bottom of this map is the border between South Dakota and Nebraska. Find the town of Platte in South Dakota and trace a horizontal line westward to the Missouri River shoreline. That's where they found Private Shannon.

If you start from that point and follow the Missouri River southward, you'll see that it narrows considerably near the Nebraska border. That's where the Fort Randall Dam is located. When the Fort Randall Dam was completed in 1956, a 107-mile long lake was created from what until then had been the Missouri River. It was given the name Lake Francis Case, and the spot on the eastern shoreline where Private George Shannon was found is now the site of the Snake Creek Recreation Area.

The Snake Creek Recreation Area is popular with boaters and anglers, and walleye is the most popular catch on the lake. Other species include smallmouth bass, sauger, northern pike, pan fish and an occasional catfish. The park even contains a children's fishing pond.