Lake Preston, South Dakota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Baker Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57249. The Survey maps it on the Lake Preston West quadrangle. 589 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,722 feet above sea level.
On record in Lake Preston
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 4 records
- First Methodist Episcopal Church of Lake Prestonlisted 2023
- Lake Preston High Schoollisted 2003
- Lake Preston Tourist Park Historic Districtlisted 2002
- Omdalen Barnlisted 2006
Population over time
2 figuresLake Preston fell from 599 to 589 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 599 | |
| 2020 | 589 | -10 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1953 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Lake Preston West quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS De Smet quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Lake Preston between 2000 and 2011, burning about 13 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 April 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
| 14 April 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
| 18 March 2000 | Debris and open burning | 7.0 acres | Desmet Volunteer Fire Department | #661 |
| 3 November 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | PRESTON |
| 1 November 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Desmet Volunteer Fire Department | INCIDENT#704 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
25 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake Preston in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 9 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 6 tornado, 1 lightning. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | Hail | Lake Preston | 2 hurt, $500,000 | Large hail broke windows, and heavily damaged vehicles and boats. Holes were punched by the hail in some of the boats. Two boaters on Lake Thompson were injured by the hail. One was taken to the hospital with a head injury, and the other suffered several welts on the back from hailstone hits. Crop damage also occurred, but the amount of crop damage was not known. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Lake Preston | $2,000,000 | Large hail caused extenseive broken windows to both buildings and vehicles, dented many vehicles, and damaged roofs and sidings of homes. Crop damage was also reported, but the amount of the damage could not be determined. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Lake Preston | $100,000 | Large hail broke windows in homes and vehicles, and otherwise damaged vehicles. The hail also caused crop damage, but the amount of crop damage was not known. |
| May 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Lake Preston | $50,000 | A tornado destroyed three calf shelters and two hog shelters, killing two cows and about a dozen hogs. The tornado also lifted a calf feeder 50 feet and rolled it 200 yards, and damaged grain bins. The tornado was well observed and photographed, and was classified as a landspout type of tornado. |
| July 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Preston | $10,000 | A brief tornado damaged several farm buildings. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | $10,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down power lines and caused tree damage. |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down a large tree on to a house, knocking a brick chimney onto a car. Minor tree damage, mainly downed branches, occurred elsewhere in the town. |
| July 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Preston | $2,000 | A brief tornado caused minor damage to a home. |
| May 1996 | Lightning | Lake Preston | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | Seven to eight power poles were snapped. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | Six inch diameter branches were downed with the wind. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | Large hail varied from quarter to baseball size. The hail damaged several vehicles, but the amount of damage was not known. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree and power line damage, resulting in a power outage. |
| July 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Preston | - | A tornado was observed crossing Lake Thompson, but did not reach land, and caused no reported damage. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down trees two feet in diameter, and caused other tree damage. |
| July 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Preston | - | A tornado in an open area resulted in no reported damage. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Preston | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetland | 7.6 miles | 9 | |
| Erwin | 9.3 miles | 9 | |
| De Smet | 9.3 miles | 11 | |
| Oldham | 10.1 miles | 9 | |
| Badger | 12.4 miles | 9 | |
| Arlington | 12.9 miles | 10 | |
| Spring Lake Colony | 13.8 miles | 9 | |
| Manchester | 18.2 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Lake Preston | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2549228 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1265274. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.



