Punished Woman’s Lake Association

Ahead of South Shore’s 125th Anniversary, the Current is pleased to publish a special section on the community’s history.

Punished Woman’s Lake has given South Shore not only its name, but a sense of community.

From the town’s earliest days, residents have enjoyed the 477-acre lake in all seasons; swimming, fishing, boating, ice skating, and ice fishing. Many of these recreational uses had an economic impact on South Shore, as did the sale of ice blocks in the winter. Perhaps most importantly, the lake provided the growing town with water and irrigation for farmers.

Like many lakes in the area, Punished Woman was impacted by the drought of the 1930s.

Over time, however, the lake showed signs of its overuse. Rated as one of the state’s cleanest lakes in the late 1960s, shoreline erosion and pollution began being noted by the late 1970s. By early July in most years, swimming was not advised. This led resident Barbara Rude to research solutions and to contact officials and experts.

“This lake is everything to this area,” Rude told the Public Opinion.

South Shore as seen from the east side of Punished Woman’s Lake.

The Punished Woman’s Lake Association was organized on August 4, 1987. Rude served as the first president of the organization; its mission was the revitalization of the lake. The following year, a diagnostic and feasibility study was conducted in a joint effort between the PWLA, the City of South Shore, and the State of South Dakota.

A five-year dredging program was recommended as a result of the study, and best practices were implemented to control run-off and further erosion.

Before work began, ponds for the silt were constructed by Bates Construction of Twin Brooks on land owned by Dale Zemlicka on the southwest side of the lake. When these were full, additional ponds were built on state-owned land on the north side of the lake.

The 44-ton dredge, named the Restoration, arrived on April 25, 1990, and began its work on May 8. Crews worked two eight-hour shifts on the dredge.

Ray Boardman served as the initial dredge foreman and was assisted by Rick Dunbar, Charles Noeldner, Gary Scriver, Bill Hoftiezer, and Dan Sterry. In the spring of 1991, Don Marquardt was hired as the project manager by the PWLA, with the task of coordinating the various aspects of the project. Randy Bouvette was later named project foreman. Other crew members included Brad Redlin, Terry Zirbel, Chad Comes, Scott Snoozy, Bob Tuttle, and Rick Hansen. A majority of this was donated labor.

The marker installed by the Punished Woman’s Lake Association after the dredging project.

“The lake was disappearing, it was dying, and that meant something to me,” Marquardt told the Public Opinion in 1991.

A potential stall in the project was avoided in 1992, when the South Dakota Lakes and Streams Association was formed by Marquardt and purchased the dredge after it was declared surplus and sold by the state.

A total of 410,858 cubic feet of silt and sediment was removed over the five years of the dredging project, which ended in September 1994. The project deepened the lake by 10 feet. As part of erosion prevention efforts, more than 4,000 trees were planted around the lake and its 11,900-acre watershed.

A significant portion of financing for the project came directly from personal donations of residents and numerous fundraising efforts on the part of the PWLA. These included barbeques, raffles, pancake feeds, and celebrations for Oktoberfest and Valentine’s Day. The community’s famed “Hee-Haw” shows began as fundraising efforts for the dredge project.

The Punished Woman’s Lake Association also built bathrooms and a picnic shelter at South Shore City Park along the lake and installed a monument there as well in 1994. The organization continues its work to this day, preserving and improving the lake.