I had noticed that the area is quite mutable as wetlands go, but chalked it up to a natural phenomenon such as the prairie pothole lakes as described by Rebecca, Wendy, and Bill. When I first ventured to De Smet, it was October, and the slough was mushy but not exactly lake-like.

During the next two visits there was indeed plenty of water in the location of the “former” Silver Lake, but it was July, so I assumed the presence of water might be a seasonal condition, much as we have in New England, where every mud season (late March into mid-May) is marked by the proliferation of vernal ponds, which usually only last a few weeks but harbor a plethora of emerging young wildlife. In my neck of the woods, if you want to find spring tadpoles, check out any shaded, muddy area with water more than a foot deep, and, Lo!, there they are.

SIlver Lake’s re-emergence tells me that once again, Mother Nature always does as she pleases, and if a lake is meant to be there, all the drainage in the world won’t keep that spot of earth entirely dry. And, of course, wind, water, soil erosion, neighboring land development and use will always impact the environment, so after 12 or 13 decades, we must expect that, just as Plum Creek does not follow exactly the same course it once did, Silver Lake could not be exactly as Laura saw it in her youth…even if it had never been drained, nor used as a trash pit, by the town of De Smet!