Unit 59A

The Sully Buttes dominate the topography and serve as a reliable navigation anchor and glassing platform. Warnes Slough, Sully Lake, Lake Okobojo, and Fuller Lake are notable water features that concentrate wildlife and provide navigation reference points. Mail Shack Creek, Artichoke Creek, Bloody Run, and Sully Creek are the primary drainages worth following for both navigation and hunting access.

Artichoke Butte provides another modest high point for orientation. The historical islands and flats scattered throughout reflect the Missouri's history; some remain active features while others are historical references. These creeks and sloughs are the key to understanding movement patterns across otherwise featureless prairie.

The entire unit sits in the low prairie zone, with elevations ranging from river-bottom elevations around 1,565 feet up to gentle ridges near 2,060 feet. This is open grassland punctuated by wetlands, brush, and scattered trees along watercourses. The Sully Buttes provide minor relief and scattered juniper, but forest cover is minimal—the landscape is predominantly treeless prairie and water.

Vegetation transitions are driven by water availability rather than elevation; willow and cottonwood thickets line creeks and sloughs, while the upland prairie remains open grass and sagebrush. The result is a patchwork of open country interspersed with riparian brush that concentrates wildlife along water courses.

The road network is fair—roughly 1.3 miles of road per square mile of terrain, adequate for getting around but not overwhelming. Major routes and highways provide entry, and secondary roads access the interior. However, here's the critical constraint: 98.8% of the unit is private land.

Access is entirely permission-dependent. This severely limits pressure distribution; most hunters will be concentrated on accessible private land or small public parcels. The flat, simple terrain means navigation is easy, but without landowner permission, much of the unit remains unavailable.

Scout early and establish relationships with private landowners to find hunting opportunity.

Unit 59A encompasses the river-bottom country around the Missouri River in central South Dakota, spanning roughly 588 square miles of prairie and wetland. The landscape is bounded by the river system and its associated drainages—Sully Creek, Okobojo Creek, Artichoke Creek, and smaller draws feed into the broader Missouri corridor. The Sully Buttes rise modestly above the surrounding plain, serving as the unit's primary topographic feature.

This is decidedly plains country; elevation barely exceeds 2,000 feet. The nearest town reference points are Okobojo and other small river communities.

Water abundance is the defining feature of this unit. Multiple reservoirs—Sully Lake, Lake Okobojo, Fuller Lake, Troy Lake—provide reliable water sources. Beyond these, numerous sloughs, wetlands, and seasonal ponds are common across the prairie.

Major creeks including Sully Creek, Okobojo Creek, Artichoke Creek, and Plum Creek flow through the unit, providing perennial or semi-perennial water that supports vegetation and wildlife. Dry Creek appears on maps but lives up to its name seasonally. The Missouri River itself runs along the unit boundary and influences the entire drainage network.

For hunters, water access is never an issue; the challenge is finding dry ground in places.

Unit 59A holds white-tailed and mule deer that utilize the riparian corridors, sloughs, and creek breaks as travel routes and bedding cover. Early season, deer use the high brush in creek bottoms and around wetland margins. As the season progresses, focus on the transition areas where open prairie meets brush-lined drainages—Sully Creek, Artichoke Creek, and the smaller draws funnel movement.

The modest elevation change is irrelevant to strategy here; water and brush dictate deer location. Glassing from the Sully Buttes or other high points can reveal movement patterns. Most hunting will be still-hunting creek bottoms or driving the brushy draws.

Access limitations make this unit challenging to hunt without private-land permission, but the simple terrain rewards hunters who scout thoroughly and understand the water corridors.