Riverdale began in 1948 as one of the largest of the camps constructed soon after 1946 to house workers building the Garrison Dam just to the west. In the tradition of earlier planned communities, Riverdale was designed to be self-sufficient. Envisioned to serve one thousand residents, the population reached a peak of around five thousand people by 1954. The population then declined, and in 1986 the community was deeded to the state and
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