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2021 Trail of Governors Annual Report

Ahead for 2022

The final three statues are in production for 2022. The foundation board members commissioned artists

Leuning and Treeby, Maher and Van Nuys to sculpt statues of third Governor Andrew E. Lee, eighth Governor

Frank M. Byrne, and twelfth Governor W.J. Bulow. The 2022 unveiling is planned for June 17 at the
Capitol Rotunda, beginning at 10:00 a.m. CDT. The Run With the Govs 3.5 mile run and walk event will hit

the starting line at 8:00 a.m. CDT the following morning, June 18, at the Capitol’s front steps.

Andrew E. Lee Frank M. Byrne W.J. Bulow
served as South Dakota’s led South Dakota as served as South Dakota
governor from 1897 governor from 1913 to 1917. governor from 1927 to
to 1901. Lee, born in Byrne was born in Iowa and 1931. He was born in Ohio
Norway, worked as a store was lured to Sioux Falls in and despite dropping out
clerk in Wisconsin before 1879 by the Dakota Boom. of school as a teenager,
moving to Dakota He worked for homestead- enrolled at the University
Territory. He started a ers before filing his own of Michigan to study law.
mercantile and owned claim in McCook County Lackinga diploma, he was
farms near Vermillion. Lee where he lived in a sod hut, admitted after having his
was South Dakota’s only Populist Party governor. As later moving to Faulk County. He served on the state history teacher take the required exams. After receiv-
governor, Lee sought to increase state revenues and senate and after selling his farm acreage, became a ing his law degree in 1893, Bulow moved to Beresford
remove corrupt state appointees, prompted by the land company owner at Faulkton. He became lieu- and opened a law office. He served in the state senate
theft of state funds by the former state treasurer. He tenant governor before being elected governor. By- and as Beresford’s mayor. He invested in farming and
insisted on physically inventorying all state funds, in rne’s term as governor is remembered for his despite the 1920s’ farm crisis, he survived financially.
cash, at the State Capitol. Lee’s nephew, Carl Gunder- reorganization of the executive branch. He created The Great Depression caused the stock market crash
son, would later be elected governor. The Lee Medical several new state commissions and bureaus in his in 1929, followed by the 1930s’ drought, creating
School building at the University of South Dakota is reformation of state government. more challenges. After his term as governor, Bulow
named for Lee, on land he donated. was elected a U.S. Senator, serving for 12 years.

A vision to create a lasting legacy of South Dakota’s governors.