LAKE TSCHIDA - Alittle lake where there aren't many can seem mighty big.

That's Lake Tschida, about as far from Elgin as it takes to lick an ice cream cone from Reiny's Drive In and as far from Glen Ulllin as it takes to swig a cold soda pop from Cenex.

There are few, if any, natural lakes down in southwestern North Dakota. Out there, the odds of stumbling across abody of water big enough to put a motor to ranks right up there with the odds that the kids left any gas in that motor.

Lake Tschida might be little -at 8,000 acres she'd tuck under the arm of Beaver Bay on Lake Sakakawea - but she is mighty in many ways.

Her mightiest attribute, in addition to her rarity, may be in the number of people who visit her every year.

The Bureau of Reclamation counted about 180,000 people last year, split more or less down the middle by people who went to one of the seven public areas to camp, swim and fish and people who went to one of the 110 trailers and 115 cabins on the lake.

That's a number that's remained relatively stable over the last decade, but is up dramatically from the early '80s.

Most visitors are from Bismarck-Mandan. When Dickinson visitors get thrown into the mix, those communities make up about 60 percent of all visitors.

The bureau only manages four public-use projects in North Dakota. Besides Lake Tschida, there's Lake Patterson, Jamestown Reservoir and New John's Lake, an in-line lake on the McClusky Canal.

Each one, like kids in a small family, gets a lot of attention.

The bureau dammed the Heart River to form Lake Tschida in 1950 for flood control and to provide water for irrigation and recreation. Those familiar with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers politics will get a tingle of deja vu to hear that irrigation from Lake Tschida is a priority over recreation.

Few complain, though, when water leaves the lake to provide water for one of the 100 or so irrigators downstream on the Heart River, said bureau manager David Herr.

This year, the bureau is spoiling Lake Tschida and people who go there will notice the attention being paid to her.

The improvements being made to the Rimrock Campground public use area on the lake's southeast side are a continuation of work that started decades ago, when the towering cottonwoods that shade the public beach were half the size they are now.

Over the years, the bureau improved the swimming beach, added facilities and parking, and improved the camping area.

Herr said the camping was developed in a willy-nilly fashion, with fire rings and picnic tables set down at likely spots where there was shade and level parking.

The set up has made it hard for people to tell where their camping spot ends and the next guy's starts, a situation that's caused arguments hot enough to roast a hot dog over the years.

Herr said the revamped campground will give everybody a little more elbow room and when the new areas open next year, he's hoping to retire his referee whistle.

The number of campsites will remain the same, at 55.

Another improvement visitors will notice is a new entrance to the campground, separate from one leading to the public beach and day use area.

Herr said the idea is to direct pickups pulling fifth-wheelers away from the same place where kids are making a desperate dash from the public beach to the bathroom.

"We wanted to make what we have better,"Herr said. The improvements aren't expensive, mainly involving the bureau crew's time, fuel and equipment.

Lake Tschida is a sweet oasis out on the prairie, for years a place where town and country kids from all around got their first taste of all the fun a lake can offer.

If she has a fault, it's the algae blooms that start when the water temperature exceeds about 70 degrees and float around until fall, when the water cools down again.

Herr said the algae are fed by the high nutrient load from farm fertilizers that find their water in the watershed. It's a perennial problem that can't be cured, he said.

Despite that, Lake Tschida remains a popular spot for summer fun, where generations now have fished and learned how to waterski and now, in this new millennium, how to wakeboard.

And yet another bonus -one unique to the bureau, compared to state, federal or army corps facilities -it doesn't cost a dime. And that, even for a little lake, is mighty nice.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)