Platte, SD

Platte is a Charles Mix County city 15 miles east of Lake Francis Case, at the junction of South Dakota Routes 44 and 45. The name comes from Platte Creek, which runs toward the Missouri River reservoir. Settlement began in the 1880s, and the local landscape still carries the big-water story: Fort Randall Dam created Lake Francis Case, while the Platte Creek Recreation Area puts the reservoir right into the town’s orbit. Lewis and Clark were warned to watch for “burning bluffs” in this stretch of the Missouri. Platte is south-central South Dakota with a creek name, a reservoir horizon, and roads meeting where the prairie drops toward the water.