Brookings, South Dakota: Statue of the Hobo King
Weary Wil, hobo king of SDSU's Hobo Day, is immortalized as a nine-foot-tall bronze statue by alumnus David Anderson. An adjacent Hobo Day Gallery features a restored 1912 "Bummobile."
- Address:
- Student Center Lane, Brookings, SD
- Directions:
- The statue stands on the campus of South Dakota State University. In the Quad, on the northwest side of the SDSU Student Union.
- RA Rates:
- Worth a Detour
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Statue of the Hobo King Weary Wil is the hobo king of Hobo Day, a homecoming tradition at South Dakota State University since 1912, when bearded "hobo" students would greet visiting football teams at the train station. The Weary Wil character appeared in the 1940s, and in 2011 was turned into a nine-foot-tall bronze statue by SDSU alumnus David Anderson. Sassy and self-confident, the bearded hobo king wears a bow tie and top hat and carries his few belongings in a sack-on-a-stick.
The statue stands outside the Student Union, where a Hobo Day Gallery features artifacts such as a restored 1912 "Bummobile."
Hopes are that Weary Wil will some day be paired with a statue of his companion, Dirty Lil, a hippie character invented in the 1970s.
[RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 02/11/2012]Nearby Offbeat Places
- Relics of a Mad Elephant, Elkton, SD - 16 mi.
- Car Lot White Buffalo, Madison, SD - 28 mi.
- The Old Stone Face, Pipestone, MN - 31 mi.
- In the region: Land O Lakes Dairy Cow, Sioux Falls, SD - 52 mi.
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