Am I missing something or is that lake very low.
The lake is the lowest since it was built in the late 40's. It was the most visited/camped recreational lake in SD last year.
Is the water not to overflow out the big cement bowl?
The big "cement bowl", known around here as the morning glory, is the overflow, and a lot of the time will be above the top of the bowl in the spring. In spring 1997, the tiptop of the morning glory was not visible, due to high water. So in 11 years the water level has probably dropped 30 ft.
To my recollection, one other time the water was higher than in 1997, and that was in 1950, the first year it held water. Living downstream, my Dad and his family were warned, to be aware, the New Shadehill Dam could break.
We have had so little runoff in the last 10 years, most dams/lakes are drying up.
If you look on the map, the Shadehill Lake is the confluence of the north fork and south fork of the Grand River, north fork coming from Bowman ND area, south fork coming from the Buffalo SD area.