Garrison Dam

Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, constructed 1947-1953. The Three Affiliated Tribes owned the land needed to flood. Short of confiscation by eminent domain the tribes protested and achieved remuneration, but lost 94% of their agricultural land. Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947-53 at over two miles (3 km) in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The reservoir impounded by the dam is Lake Sakakawea, which extends to Williston and the confluence with the Yellowstone River, near the Montana border.