The earthen and rockfill dam was constructed in 1948 and 1949 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

[2] It impounds Medicine Creek for flood control, part of the Frenchman-Cambridge Division of the Bureau's extensive Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program.

The reservoir it creates, Harry Strunk Lake, has a water surface of 1,850 acres (750 ha), a land area of 7,093 acres (2,870 ha), approximately 29 miles (47 km) of shoreline, and a capacity of 35,705 acre-feet (44,041,000 m3).

[4] It was named for the founding editor of the local McCook Daily Gazette.

Recreation includes fishing (for walleye, crappie, white bass, channel catfish, etc.