A Look Back

If you've never heard of Plateau Lake, you have company.

The Billings County lake is small, less than 5 acres in size, and located off the beaten path in the badlands near Moody and Kendley plateaus. Once managed by the Game and Fish Department, Plateau Lake has been inactive for about 25 years.

Scott Peterson, Department deputy director, has been to Plateau Lake, which is fed by a tributary of Dantz Creek.

Records indicate that Plateau Lake was first stocked with rainbow trout fingerlings by Game and Fish in 1962. The last time it was stocked was 1990.

"I helped stock that lake in the early 1980s," said Peterson, who was working for the Department as a seasonal fisheries aide at the time. "Because you couldn't drive to the lake, I remember hiking down the trail with trout fingerlings in a bucket."

Greg Power, Department fisheries chief, said a number of dams were built in North Dakota in 1950s and earlier, which created new fisheries in the state. It's unknown when the dam on the creek was constructed.

Before 1950, Game and Fish managed only about 30 fisheries in the state. But after the construction of several dams, the number of managed fisheries jumped to about 150 by 1963.

This black and white photograph was taken in 1966. That year, Department fisheries personnel stocked 400 trout fingerlings.

While Plateau Lake was stocked with trout 11 times in a 28-year period, there is little if any mention of the secreted lake in North Dakota OUTDOORS.

Of the 120 waters listed in the May 1966 issue of OUTDOORS, Plateau isn't one of them. An editor's note at the time said only the state's "main fishing waters" made the list.

"Whether there were any trout caught at Plateau Lake over the years, I couldn't tell you," Peterson said. "What I do know was that it was a pretty, little spot in the badlands to try and catch a fish."