Harry S. Truman Lake is Missouri's largest flood-control reservoir, covering about 55,600 acres at normal pool on the Osage River between Clinton and Warsaw in Benton, Henry, Hickory, and St. Clair counties. It was created when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed Truman Dam in 1979. The project provides flood risk management, hydroelectric power, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits for the Osage, lower Missouri, and Mississippi River systems.

At multipurpose pool Truman has about 958 miles of shoreline, averages near 22 feet deep, and reaches about 80 feet in deeper channel areas near the dam. Long arms of the Osage, South Grand, Pomme de Terre, and Sac rivers create a sprawling, shallow flood-control basin of timber, flats, and river channels. During major floods the surface can expand beyond 200,000 acres as the Corps stores runoff.

Truman is a major destination for crappie, white bass, black bass, catfish, and paddlefish, with fisheries managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Corps parks, campgrounds, marinas, beaches, and the Truman Regional Visitor Center provide extensive public access, and the lake sits immediately upstream of Lake of the Ozarks.

Water levels on Truman Lake are managed by the Corps of Engineers around a multipurpose pool of 706 feet above mean sea level (NGVD29), with a flood-control pool extending to 739.6 feet. Because flood storage is the project's primary job, elevations can change dramatically with basin rainfall and releases through Truman Dam into Lake of the Ozarks, so monitoring current lake levels is essential for boating safety, fishing, and shoreline access.

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