Lake Shetek State Park

Lake Shetek State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, on Lake Shetek, which is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota and the headwaters of the Des Moines River. It is most popular for water recreation and camping. However the park also contains historical resources related to the Dakota War of 1862, including an original log cabin and a monument to 15 white settlers killed there and at nearby Slaughter Slough on August 20, 1862.

The park and lake were developed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Two districts of park structures built in the National Park Service rustic style are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lake Shetek State Park occupies 1,109 acres (449 ha) on the east shore of Lake Shetek in northeastern Murray County, 4 miles (6.4 km) outside the town of Currie. The park is about 13 miles (21 km) equidistant from both Tracy to the north and Slayton to the southwest, and 33 miles (53 km) southeast of the city of Marshall.

Almost 7 miles (11 km) of shoreline on Lake Shetek lie within the park boundary, though inholdings with private homes comprise some of that distance. The park includes 45-acre (18 ha) Loon Island, which is connected to the mainland by a 1,000-foot (300 m) causeway. Two smaller lakes, two fish rearing ponds, and two marshes are also within the park boundaries.

The park lies on the Coteau des Prairies, a plateau at the juncture of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa. Southwest of the drainage basin of the Des Moines River there are no natural lakes for some distance. For this reason the state park attracts many visitors from neighboring parts of Iowa and South Dakota.

Lake Shetek and the surrounding landscape of wetlands and rolling hills are the result of glaciation. The lake and park lie on the Altamont Moraine, a terminal moraine marking the farthest extent of an ice lobe during the Wisconsin glaciation. This most-recent glaciation deposited a very thick blanket of till over the area. A well just outside the park was drilled through 375 feet (114 m) of till without reaching bedrock.

Lake Shetek began forming as the climate started to warm 15,000 years ago. Water from the melting glaciers carved channels into the moraine. Where one channel—now occupied by Beaver Creek—intersected the channel now occupied by the Des Moines River, a buildup of sediment and slumping banks partially dammed the outflow, creating a large, shallow lake.

Prior to European cultivation, most of the future park was prairie. Settlers recorded that the only trees were on Lake Shetek's islands, which were protected from wildfires. They were not protected from the settlers, however, and were soon harvested. Ecological succession has converted the old fields mostly to northern hardwood forest composed of oak, hackberry, basswood, elm, and ash trees. Restoration ecology efforts are being made to return park grasslands to native prairie.