Pierson Ranch Recreation Area is a sixty-acre state recreation area in southeastern South Dakota, about four miles west of Yankton, set below Gavins Point Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake beside Lake Yankton. In a landscape shaped by the lower Missouri River, it serves year-round as a place for camping, swimming, fishing, hiking, and boating, while also providing campground facilities and waterside access. The site grew out of development of the Gavins Point project and opened in 1959 as the first campground built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after the dam’s construction. In 2001, its management passed to the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks under a perpetual lease.