Oahe Acres, SD

Oahe Acres is a Hughes County census-designated place seven miles north of Pierre, South Dakota’s capital, and about two miles east of Oahe Dam on the Missouri River. It had 503 residents in the 2020 census. The community’s map is set by the dam and Lake Oahe: Highway 1804 runs through the area, Pierre supplies the state-capital connection, and the reservoir opens a long water corridor north toward North Dakota. Oahe Acres is a rural settlement with a large water project close enough to shape roads, recreation, and the regional landscape.

Oahe Dam was completed in 1964 after a project that changed the Missouri River valley through flood control, hydroelectric power, irrigation, and navigation. The reservoir extends more than 200 miles and supports boating, fishing, camping, hunting, and birding at multiple recreation areas. Nearby Oahe Chapel preserves the earlier mission history: Reverend Thomas L. Riggs established the Oahe Mission in 1874, and the chapel was completed in 1877 at a site associated with an Arikara village. Oahe Acres is a South Dakota place where a modern reservoir and an older river mission remain part of the same Pierre-area map.