Editing Timber Lake, South Dakota (section)

==History==
Timber Lake was founded in 1910 with the arrival of the [[Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad]] into the area.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REtEXQNWq6MC&pg=PA999 | title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States | publisher=Routledge | date=May 13, 2013 | accessdate=30 November 2013 | author=Hellmann, Paul T. | pages=999| isbn=978-1135948597 }}</ref> Despite the name, very few trees grew at the lake near the town site.<ref>{{cite book|author=Federal Writers' Project|author-link=Federal Writers' Project|title=South Dakota place-names, v.1-3|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027015455;view=1up;seq=159|year=1940|publisher=University of South Dakota|page=63}}</ref> During drought, the lake is a mere mudhole.

On April 21, 1946, a [[List of United States tornadoes in 1946#April 21 event|large tornado]] struck the area in and around Timber Lake. The [[National Weather Service|U.S. Weather Bureau]] published a paper in 1946 stating the width of this tornado was {{convert|4|mi|km}}, which would make this the widest tornado ever documented in history, surpassing the [[2013 El Reno tornado]]. However, this is outside the period of reliable documentation accepted by the [[National Weather Service]]; 1950–present.<ref name="April MWR">{{cite journal |journal=Monthly Weather Review |date=1 April 1946 |volume=74 |issue=4 |page=73 |doi=10.1175/1520-0493(1946)074<0073:SLSFA>2.0.CO;2 |doi-access=free |title=Severe Local Storms for April 1946 |bibcode=1946MWRv...74...73. }}</ref>