page_title: Geography of South Dakota
section_title: Regions
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of South Dakota / Regions
caption_attribution_description: English: View looking towards the Black Elk Wilderness in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA. Horsethief Lake can be seen in the foreground.
context_page_description: South Dakota is a state located in the north-central United States. It is usually considered to be in the Midwestern region of the country. The state can generally be divided into three geographic regions: eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. Eastern South Dakota is lower in elevation and higher in precipitation than the western part of the state, and the Black Hills are a low, isolated mountain group in the southwestern corner of the state. Smaller sub-regions in the state include the Coteau des Prairies, Coteau du Missouri, James River Valley, the Dissected Till Plains. Geologic formations in South Dakota range in age from two billion-year-old Precambrian granite in the Black Hills to glacial till deposited over the last few million years. South Dakota is the 17th-largest state in the country.
  South Dakota has a humid continental climate in the east and in the Black Hills, and a semi-arid climate in the west outside of the Black Hills, featuring four very distinct seasons, and the ecology of the state features plant and animal species typical of a North American temperate grassland biome.
context_section_description: South Dakota can generally be divided into three regions: eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. The Missouri River serves as a somewhat stark boundary in terms of geographic, social and political differences between eastern and western South Dakota, and the geography of the Black Hills differs from its surroundings to such an extent that it can be considered separate from the rest of western South Dakota. South Dakotans also at times combine the Black Hills with the rest of western South Dakota, and refer to the two resulting regions, divided by the Missouri, as West River and East River.
  Eastern South Dakota is generally wetter and features lower topography than the western part of the state. Smaller geographic regions of this area include the Coteau des Prairies, the Dissected Till Plains, and the James River Valley. The Coteau des Prairies is a higher region bordered on the east by the Minnesota River Valley and on the west by the James River Basin. Numerous glacial lakes cover the Coteau, and it is largely drained by the Big Sioux River, a tributary of the Missouri. Further to the west, the James River Basin is mostly low, flat, highly eroded land, following the flow of the James River through South Dakota from north to south. The Dissected Till Plains, an area of rolling hills and fertile soil that covers much of Iowa and Nebraska, also extends into the southeastern corner of South Dakota.
  The Coteau du Missouri lies between the James River Basin of the Drift Prairie and the Missouri River. This region is the southern section of a large plateau extending into Canada.
  The Great Plains cover most of the western two-thirds of South Dakota. West of the Missouri River the landscape becomes more rugged and consists of rolling hills, plains, ravines, and steep flat-topped hills called buttes. These buttes sometimes rise 400 to 600 feet (120 to 180 m) above the plains. In the south, east of the Black Hills, lie the South Dakota Badlands.
  The Black Hills are in the southwestern part of South Dakota and extend into Wyoming. This range of low mountains covers 6,000 sq. miles (15,500 km².) with mountains that rise from 2,000 to 4,000 feet (600 to 1,200 m) above their bases. The highest point in South Dakota, Black Elk Peak (formerly named Harney Peak) is 7,242 ft or 2,207 m above sea level and is in the Black Hills. This is the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Other Black Hills mountains that are over 7,000 ft (2,133 m) in elevation include Bear Mountain, Crooks Tower, Terry Peak, and Crows Nest Peak. The Black Hills are rich in minerals such as gold, silver, copper, and lead. The Homestake Mine, the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, was located in the Black Hills and produced over $1 billion in gold since it started operation in 1876. The mine is now a scientific laboratory.
caption: The Black Hills are a group of low mountains in the southwestern part of the state.
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