Statues of three former governors are set for unveiling Nov. 1 in Pierre. The event is a part of the state's 125th Anniversary celebration.
Bronze statues of George S. Mickelson, Peter Norbeck and Robert Vessey are set for the November unveiling. Under supervision of the Trail of Governors Foundation, likenesses of three governors from different time periods are cast in bronze each year.
“We do three a year, and for ten years there are 30 ex-governors and of course there will always be a new one as a governor leaves office,” says Rick Jensen the President of the Trail of Governors Foundation. He helped create the Trail of Governors.
“It was a crazy idea that myself and a friend of mine, Leroy Foster were sitting around one day and we were talking about how cool it would be if we had all of our governors’ statues,” Jensen says. “Kind of like Rapid City with presidents, but the former governors’ people around the state actually knew those people or were related to them so it seemed like it would be a lot more personable.”
Jensen says that the Trail of Governors is a unique project and has not been done anywhere else in the U.S.
“Doing our research we found out there was no other city in the country that has a program like this,” Jensen says.
Vessey’s statue is to be placed in front of the South Dakota Retailer’s Association. Mickelson’s statue will go south of the Fighting Stallions Memorial and Norbeck’s will stand downtown on the corner of Dakota Avenue and Pierre Street. The statues cost $68,000 each and are all cast by South Dakota artists. The statues are funded by sponsors of the project.
For a complete list of sponsors for the Trail of Governors visit http://www.trailofgovernors.com/statue-sponsorship.htm.