Pactola: The Town Under the Lake

The reservoir visible from the road here covers a town called Pactola, one of the original Black Hills mining camps. It grew up during the eighteen seventies gold rush, eventually reaching a population of around three hundred, with a post office and a railway spur running into the valley. When the gold played out, Pactola shrank to a quiet mountain community.

Then in the nineteen fifties, the Bureau of Reclamation decided this valley was the right place for a dam to supply water to Rapid City and provide flood control for the region. Construction ran from nineteen fifty-two to nineteen fifty-six. The town was cleared, and the valley filled.

Pactola Lake is now one of the most popular recreation spots in the Black Hills. The old townsite has been underwater for roughly seventy years.