Big Stone Lake provides the setting for Hartford Beach State Park, a popular camping and picnic area nestled in the shade of a native wooded forest. Runoff from melting glaciers 10,000 years ago created the River Warren, a section of which is known today as Big Stone Lake. Rugged rock-strewn bluffs and scenic timbered shorelines surround Hartford Beach. Five hiking trails at Hartford Beach State Park take visitors past historic sites and scenic overlooks, including burial mounds and a prehistoric village site. The American Indian mounds found in Hartford Beach State Park are typical of numerous such mounds in eastern South Dakota. They cover a time span from approximately 300 A.D. to 1600 A.D. At the eastern end of the Robar Trail is a log cabin trading post which operated from 1863 to 1873.
Hartford Beach State Park offers a wide variety of amenities that includes campgrounds, a boat ramp, swimming and boater’s beaches, fish cleaning station, fishing pole and yard game checkouts, playgrounds, and a picnic shelter. Hartford Beach State Park offers a nine-hole disc golf course on top of a knoll surrounded by the areas wooded draws overlooking Big Stone Lake. A five-target archery range will help get bows dialed in before embarking on the 28-target archery trail winding through some of Hartford Beach’s grasslands and woody savannahs. Don’t forget to try fishing on the world class Big Stone Lake. The lake is known for its exceptional perch fishing as well as large numbers of bluegills, crappies, walleyes, largemouth bass, and northern pike. The park’s four camping cabins are open year-round to enjoy all seasons and the views. The one-room cabins come with heat, air conditioning, electricity and sleeping accommodations for four people. No cooking is allowed inside the cabins, but outside you will find a fire grate, picnic table and porch
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